A Sort Of One Night Stand
by comade
Summary: When Tony and Pietro start spending their nights together, Clint quickly gets jealous.
1. Coffee and video games

"He hates me."

Clint glanced at Tony over his shoulder, still pouring coffee into his cup. "Who?" he asked, frowning. The billionaire didn't answer, and Clint turned around, his glance falling onto Tony sitting at the counter turning his back at him. He was staring at Pietro, who was sitting on the couch with his sister and Natasha. A small smile crept onto the archer's face as he saw Pietro burst into laughter, probably mocking his sister given the glare she was giving him. Natasha tried to hide her smile behind her hand, but Wanda noticed her too, and couldn't help but join them. The twins had now been here for almost one month, and they got along with the team pretty easily. Sure, they were still wary with some of the avengers, and some of them had some problems with Pietro's cockiness, but it was still a great beginning.

"Why would he hate you?" the archer snorted, sitting besides Tony. "I mean, I wouldn't blame him for it, but I don't think he does."

Tony gave him a look that clearly meant "are you seriously asking me that question?", and Clint was about to tell him that the twins' tragic backstory had been settled a long time ago, when he cut him off, explaining to him that Pietro hated him because he had learned to hate him during years, and that he still saw him as an asshole. Clint just gave him once again the "Can we blame him for that?" reply, earning a death glare from the billionaire.

"The kid's cold with me, he always glare at me, and whenever I try to joke with him, he just roll his eyes and walk away." Tony sighed. He glanced at Clint, and resumed, fuming. "And, I swear, if you give me once again that ''can we blame him for that'' bullshit, I burn your damn farm."

Clint held his hands in front of him defensively, an amused expression on his face. Wasn't _he_ supposed to be the grumpy old man, according to Pietro? Maybe that was Tony's plan to win the young man's heart: become Clint. Because, he couldn't deny it anymore, everyone here noticed it, Pietro seemed to have a soft spot for the archer, and vice versa.

"First, if you don't want him to hate you, don't call him kid." the brunet stated

He saw Tony give him a confused look from the corner of his eyes, but didn't look at him, taking a long sip from his mug. He would definitely need coffee for a conversation like this with Tony, especially this early.

"Should I remind you that you call him kid?"

Clint simply retorted that he was allowed, not really having an explaination. Tony wasn't wrong here, they were supposed to be kinda close, so why would he call him like that if Pietro hated it? The archer felt like "because it's fun" wouldn't be the best answer, but there was nothing else to say, actually. It was like a game, their whole friendship was based on irritating each other. At first, Clint despised Pietro for his arroguant attitude, but now it was more thrilling than annoying. It was just how it worked, they kept bothering each other until one of them snapped, and it was probably why there was so much tension between them. It was probably why they kept doing this even though sometimes one of them would go too far and the other would end up more than mad. They liked that tension, they needed it.

"I'm such a delightful person, how can he hate me?" Tony asked, snapping Clint out of his thoughts. The archer blinked at him for a few seconds, looking like he had forgot his presence, and groaned when he understood that his friend was still not done with this conversation.

"Why do you care?" Clint groaned, running a hand over his face

"He's making me paranoid." Tony replied a little too loudly, drawing the other's attention toward them. "He's so fast he can almost disappear, Clint. He could pull up any prank on me, I wouldn't have a damn clue about it." he grunted, moving on his seat to be in front of the counter

He rested his elbows on it, stealing Clint's cup to take a sip from it. Weirdly, the archer didn't say anything, too busy looking at Pietro and Natasha having what seemed like a friendly verbal joust, looking at each other with a slight grin on their face, while Wanda just stood there, amused. The archer still listened to his friend, if he could call him that, with one ear, and scoffed at his explaination. "That's all? You should get used to prank, you know."

"But he spitted in my coffee!" Tony suddenly shouted, offended

That definitely got Clint's attention back to him, as he turned his head towards the brunet. "Really?" He wouldn't be surprised if that was true, but still, it was a little too disgusting to be something Pietro would do. Since they got here, he sure did a lot of things: stole people's clothes, hid Clint's arrows, customized Mjolnir, replaced Phil Coulson's shoes with Crocs on a day of meetings, used Steve's shield as a plate for his pizza when he was too hungover to give a damn about it... He was more of an annoying prankster, not a disgusting one.

"Well, technically, no, but he _could_ have." Tony grimaced. Clint just stared at him with a stern look, and making him roll his eyes. "Come on, don't look at me like that, I can almost read the ''I'm tired of your shit'' expression on your face."

"Almost? Then I'm not trying hard enough." the archer smirked, snatching his cup back

He was still looking at the others, a spark of affection in his eyes. He didn't know why seeing the twins like that warmed his heart so much. It was like seeing your parents getting along with your significant one. That was a weird comparison, given that neither of them was his "significant one", but Clint may have been a little attracted to one of them, and having Natasha's approval was always good. He never meant to tell anyone of his attraction for the annoying twin, but she didn't really need him to discover it. He just had to glance at Pietro for like two seconds with a slight smile on his face, and she understood.

Clint watched Natasha get up, her hand lingering on Pietro's shoulder as she brushed past them on her way out of the room. Yes, she definitely liked him. Or she wanted to kill him. There was no in-between, it was hard to know if it was her "I like you" or "You're gonna die" tap on the shoulder.

"So, I guess you're not gonna help me." Tony sighed. God, this conversation still wasn't over?

"Wait, I was supposed to help you?" Clint's eyebrows shot up, as he glanced back at the billionaire. "Listening to you for like five whole minutes isn't already enough?" he sneered

"I'm gonna ask Wanda, then."

This was unfair and totally uncalled for. Tony knew Clint wouldn't let him do this. He couldn't do this to Wanda. The poor girl would just listen to him with a sweet smile on her lips, too kind to tell him that she didn't care about his problem with her brother. Not that she was kind of a passive person, she could easily snap at people, but only at people she really knew, like her brother or Clint, even though she rarely did it. She didn't know Tony enough, and acted in the most respectful way possible around him and the other avengers. She would just endure his rant about how nice he was and how he didn't understand why Pietro didn't like him without saying anything. He couldn't let her go through the unbearable experience of Tony asking for your help in the morning. "Ok, I'm gonna help you, but how? Should I remind you that I'm not the kid's best friend? We're not that close."

"Yeah, sure, you don't know this kid at all." the brunet replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. He quickly got back to the main subject, knowing that Clint wouldn't answer to this. "You just have to tell me how I can make him like me."

"You shouldn't try to talk to him. He's the most stubborn person I know, if he don't wanna like you, he won't. You should just... Make it come naturally, I guess." he shrugged

"Yes, thank you, that helps me so much." Tony snorted ironically. "Are you aware that people never tell me to act natural for a reason?"

"I never told you to act natural." he snapped back, annoyed

An awkward silence fell between them, as Tony stared at his friend with a confusion look on his face. Usually, he hated no understanding things, but right now, they weren't talking about mechanic or science, they were talking about human interractions, so his confusion seemed pretty normal. Clint scoffed, shaking his head. Had Tony always been so clueless?

"Aren't you supposed to be kind of a genius?"

"Aren't you supposed to be helpful?" Once again, Clint just stared at him with a stern look, clearly done with this conversation. "Wanda, I need to ask you something." Tony suddenly shouted over his shoulder

The heads of the twins, last people present in this room, snapped in their direction, and Clint quickly dismissed them without a glance in their direction, glaring at Tony. He then saw Tony roll his eyes at them, and turned his head toward the siblings. Wanda had a curious expression on her face, but then went back to her conversation with her brother, who was, as expected, looking at the billionaire with a scowl on his face. Clint heard Wanda make a snarky remark about the silver haired boy, who immediatly snapped his attention back to the conversation, a smirk on his face.

"See? He hates me." Tony whined. "That's not fair, for the first time in my life I'm actually trying to be nice to someone."

Clint wasn't listening to him anymore, knowing that he would just keep rambling about how wonderful he was and about how the kid was ungrateful of how sympathic he was trying to be. He was thinking about how he could make Pietro like Tony. Yes, he was actually trying to find a solution to the billionaire's problem. He was probably getting softer with age.

The archer easily found a solution. Since his intregration into the team, Pieto got along with the other members with his cockiness and his ability to find absurd challenges. That could seem weird, but that was exactly what happened. His arguments with Natasha were always really entertainings, and he liked to dare Sam on the stupidest things ever. Plus, no need to remind people that it was how his friendship with Clint worked: annoy the other until he want to throw you out the window. Of course, all of his relations weren't like that, he had a profound respect for Steve and enjoyed training with him, and he liked talking to Thor every one in a while, even though most of their conversations was him trying to make the god believe ridiculous humans traditions. Logically, Tony just needed to be himself, while spending time with Pietro, no? Now, Clint just had to find something they could do together. An idea seemed to pop into his head, as his eyes brightened.

"He usually can't sleep at night, and go play on the console at midnight almost everyday. This moron always send me a message to ask me if I want to play. He knows I don't want to, he just do it because he knows it wakes me up." the archer broke in, staring off into space. "Go play with him, you don't sleep anyway."

"Yeah, awesome, I'm gonna play with the kid instead of working in my lab, I waited for this all my life."

Clint shrugged, answering that it was up to him. He honestly couldn't care less about this. He then heard what seemed like sokovian insults behind him, and threw a glance over his shoulder. Wanda had four pillows in levitation around her, aiming at Pietro, who snickered before disappearing in a blue blur. The pillows soon followed him, and a loud sound was heard in the corridor. His sister's eyes widened, as she ran out of the room, bursting into laughter when she saw that her brother had tripped over one of the pillow and crashed into a wall. Tony shook his head, mumbling something about needing to put protections on the walls. A slight smile appeared on Clint's face, but disappeared only a second after, when the billionaire started to talk again. He asked him how he was supposed to do this. After all, why would Pietro want to play with him when he didn't want to have anything to do with him?

"Challenge him, he's too arroguant to refuse." Clint answered, thinking about how he reminded him of someone, who may actually be sitting right next to him

"Not that close, huh?" Tony smirked, giving him a meaningful look

"Shut up." the archer glowered, getting up. Like he had said before, it was an undeniable fact that there was a little thing between him and Pietro, he couldn't deny that he felt at the same time affection and attracton toward the young man, but that didn't mean he wanted it to go further. He was satisfied with how they were, he didn't want anything else, because it would make things complicated, and because he knew he was too old for him. But he especially didn't want people to start to notice what was going on, as Tony just did. Sure, they already knew they were pretty close, and they often teased them about it, but it was still a joke. Annoying, sure, but a joke. He didn't want Tony or anyone else to start to imply things.

He was leaving the room, nimbly avoiding various objects on the floor: bottles, gloves, even Thor's hammer (last night may have been a little agitated, some of them were quite hangover and Clint couldn't blame the god for forgetting Mjolnir here). He was halfway out the door when Tony interrumpted him once again, god this guy would never stop talking, would he?

"Wait, why do you help me? I don't owe you, do I? Because I'm not good at owing people."

Clint stopped by the doorframe, pondering for a second. Why did he help him exactly? He never said no when someone came for his help, probably because of his overprotectivness due to the fact that he was a father, but still, people rarily agreed to help Tony, mostly because he was a pain in the ass, but also because getting involve in his problems was the worse thing someone could do. He did it because he didn't want Tony to bother Wanda, sure, but there was also an ulterior motive concerning the annoying silver haired man.

"… I just told you that so the kid will have someone to play with and will stop bothering me."

And as he walked away, Clint sighed, shaking his head. He couldn't fool himself,

He had never told a biggest lie in his life.

* * *

Initially, Tony had bought this console for himself, getting easily bored when he couldn't go to his lab, for various reasons. Luckily, that didn't happened often. The billionaire also bought it because seeing Roger play on it was one of his aim. He couldn't wait to laugh at Steve trying to figure out how to play on this thing, that's why most of the time, when he was playing with Rhodey, he asked Steve if he wanted to join them. The answer was always the same, sadly, and Tony thought he would die without seeing Captain America fighting once again against his worst ennemy, technology. Fortunately, one day, his wish came true. He had walked into Steve playing, and he weirdly felt like a mother seeing her child make his first steps. But then, he saw that he was playing with Natasha, and felt terror within his stomach. She was already beating up their asses in real life, why would he want it to happen in games too?

All of this to say: Tony had bought this console for him, and for the amusement of watching another confrontation between Steve and the technology. He didn't expect it to become a full-time hobby for everyone. Nobody really admitted it, but everyone played on this, and they played on this a lot. A sort of untold schedule was even settled, it was weird, really. In the morning, Sam found a way to play against Steve after their morning runs, in the afternoon Rhodey was there, sometimes with Tony when he wasn't busy, and some others with Wanda when she wasn't training, and in the evening Natasha came in and beated everyone. Apparently, the night was Pietro's time. At midnight, Tony had reluctantly left his lab, leaving his project on the side, and had entered the « living-room » of the building, only to find a fully awake Pietro, sitting crossed legged on the couch with a gamepad in his hands.

"Coffee?" the brunet asked, walking behind the counter to grab a cup

The young man glanced at him for a second, before quickly getting his eyes back on the screen, not surprised by his presence at all. He knew Tony stayed up almost all night everyday, sometimes he saw him crossing a corridor to reach his lab at one in the morning. "Yeah, sure, I'm gonna drink coffee while I'm trying to tire myself." Pietro sneered. The brunet rolled his eyes, pouring the liquid into his mug. Why was he doing that, again? Sure, the kid made him paranoid, but, seriously, he was pretty used to people hating him, he would survive.

Walking over Pietro, Tony went behind the couch, resting his elbows on the back of the sofa, looking at the screen. He saw at the corner of his eyes Pietro's shoulders tense up, but the young man stayed silent, probably too concentrated to care.

"Wanna play?"

Tony gave him a weird look, frowning. Wasn't the kid supposed to hate him? Where was that offer coming from? Pietro saw his facial expression from the corner of his eyes, and huffed. Still, he couldn't blame him. Anyone would be suspicious if someone who hated them suddenly offered them to play. Throwing a second gamepad over his shoulder, he kept his glance on the screen, not caring if Tony would join him or not. The brunet caught it easily, and went to sit down beside him.

"You sure? Wouldn't want you to hate me because I beat up your ass."

"No worries." Pietro smirked. "I already hate you."

A smile crept onto Tony's face, as he shook his head, quickly trying to focus back on the screen. On second thought, this could be more entertainings than he thought it would be. They both were really competitive, a friendship between them would sure be very interesting. "Try to keep up." Pietro snorted in his heavy accent, chosing a map. Tony rolled his eyes, and playfully pushed his shoulder, making him miss the beginning of the race.

Pietro smiled, scoffing a quiet "asshole". He couldn't believe he was doing this. He couldn't even believe Wanda had took his side. She talked to him this afternoon, telling him that she understood that he didn't like him and thought that he was "an arroguante pain in the ass", but that now that they lived and worked with him, they needed to do efforts.She thought that they needed to get along with the entire team, not just with Natasha and Clint, and, even though Pietro strongly disagreed with her, thinking that they never had any friend and that they had always been fine this way, he accepted.

"If I win, you have to get me coffee tomorrow." Tony suddenly said, drawing his attention back to the game.

"Deal." Pietro grinned. "Hope you won't be too disappointed when you'll have to make your own coffee tomorrow, old man."


	2. Another coffee and water bottle

Tony had never fell asleep in the living-room before, and he thought he would never. Usually, he would wake up sitting at his desk, his cheek pressed against the glass of the furniture. He wasn't going to complain about waking up on the couch, it was pretty comfortable unlike what he was used to, but he didn't like the fact that people could just come in the living-room and see him asleep. People weren't really nice here, if you fell asleep in front of them, you woke up with something written on your forehead, something weird in your hand, or even Mjolnir laying on your chest. Luckily, Thor only did that one time, but it was certainly the worst minute of Sam's life.

So, that's why Tony was quite confused when he opened his eyes. He didn't expect being here. After a few seconds of looking around him, frowning, Tony finally realized that he fell asleep after what felt like a hundredth race with Pietro. Neither of them wanted to lose, so everytime one was winning, the other would make him agree to do another party, making the bet even bigger. At one point, if Tony won, Pietro had to get him coffee every morning and every night for a month, and if Pietro won, Tony had to help him pranking the others for a month, taking the blame if they were caught. The genius didn't really remember who won, until his glance fell onto a coffee from Starkbuck, adressed to "Tony Stank". Chuckling, he grabbed it, and slowly got up, still feeling groggy.

"Can't believe that moron didn't wake me up..." he mumbled, walking toward his lab

He walked past the clock and saw that it was only eight in the morning. He raised his eyebrows, surprised that the kid was up so early. He thought he would be the kind of man getting up at eleven and eating breakfast until two in the afternoon. Opening the door of his lab, Tony was about to take a sip from his coffee when he noticed a messy handwriting on the opposite side of where his name was written. _"Hope you're gonna shoke on it"_ he read, fighting back a laughter after seeing the huge mistake at the word "choke". The twins would definitely have to take classes. Both were good enough, but they had their flaws. Wanda was better at writing, and Pietro at talking english, even though his accent was pretty strong. Tony had often made fun of it, but, not really surprisingly, the young man reacted badly, still hating him. Now, things already seemed to be better. The last night wasn't so bad, and they had actually laughed a lot.

Shaking his head, Tony put the cup down, getting back to work. This kid was sure gonna be a lot of trouble, but he wasn't going to complain about it. He loved troubles.

After that, Tony didn't see Pietro until noon, which was quite understandable since he didn't leave his lab until then. Usually, he would leave this room more than that, often being out until the night, but now he was kind of caught up in a new project, so only the need of coffee or food would get him out of there. When he finally walked out of the lab, walking up the stairs to end up in the kitchen which was in the same room as the living-room, he saw that there was already a lot of people sitting at the table, talking about the last mission while eating. The brunet grabbed an apple and sat beside Natasha, who was arguing with Steve about the way they should have planned their attack, but was quickly bored by the subject. His attention was drifting away, absent-mindedly listening to Wanda and Vision's conversation, when someone else sat beside him, snatching his non-eaten apple from his hand. The brunet was about to protest when he turned his head, meeting Pietro's disappointed expression.

"Uh, you're still here." he pouted, biting on his stolen apple

Tony frowned, not really understanding what he was saying. A short silence fell between them, until the genius finally remembered the message written on his coffee. "Yeah, I didn't choke, but thanks for the message." he grinned. "Can't believe you went to get me coffee this early. I didn't think you would be this dedicated." he added with a smirk. Pietro rolled his eyes, answering that he went for his usual morning run. Tony was about to mock him for his mistake in the message, when the runner interrumpted him, leaning close.

"You still have to help me prank the others." he said with a lower voice

Tony raised his eyebrows, staring at him with a surprised expression. That wasn't quite the deal they made. "And why would I do that?" he asked, making the younger man roll his eyes. That was the thing with Tony Stark, if he couldn't get something out of what you asked, then he wasn't going to do it. The silver-haired man seemed to ponder for a second, knitting his eyebrows. Tony shook his head, and was about to grab something else from the table when he noticed Wanda staring at them with an amused smile. She didn't look away when their eyes met, but finally break eye contact when Vision asked her what was going on. She quietly jerked her chin towards the entrance, and Tony saw understanding flash over Vision's face, but only saw Clint walking away when he looked in that direction. He frowned, looking back at the witch who was already back to her conversation with Vision.

"Because I asked nicely." Pietro suddenly said, drawing his attention back to him

Tony suddenly noticed how close they were since Pietro leaned toward him to not be heard by the others. He wondered if that was why Wanda acted so strangely for a second. "Actually you didn't." he retorted, raising one eyebrow. The runner sighed, running a hand down his face. He should have expected this, their conversations weren't going to be easy. He was supposed to hate Tony; Tony was a dick; and, yet, they were talking like friends.

"Don't be an ass." he groaned

"That was your way of asking nicely?" Tony laughed, crossing his arms

"Would it work?"

"No." The brunet got up, knowing that this conversation would go on for hours and get them nowhere. Pietro turned his head, still sitting at the table and shouted "C'mon, just one". Sighing, Tony turned his head, and told him that he would do it, if Pietro beat him tonight. A grin appeared on the runner's face, as he held out his hand. Once again, Tony knew this was a bad idea, this would get him in even more troubles. But something about this kid was entertaining. He was reckless, and Tony knew that this was the thing this team cruelly missed. He loved his work, and his coworkers, but sometimes they could be really boring, too responsible. Spending time with Pietro would sure be refreshing. He knew what he was getting into, and he knew he was going to hate it as much as he was going to enjoy it. But Tony took his hand, and shook it without any hesitation, for the sake of amusement.

"Deal."

* * *

Pietro was supposed to be at his training right now, but it was almost over, and he was bored. Steve had been trying to make them work as a team lately, but not in a "mission" kind of way, more in a "planning everything is important" way. It had now been two weeks into this new training, and Pietro was pretty sure Steve was trying to kill them. In the morning, they would train until they didn't feel their body anymore, and in the afternoon, they would do a simulation, and then analyze what had happened. He had just went through an hour of analyzing and finding flaws in everything, and he now felt like his brain was turned off. Luckily, he had found a way to dismiss himself from the last thirty minutes. Well, he hadn't really been dismissed, but it didn't matter. He had just mumbled to himself "America can analyze my ass" after Steve had said once again "Let's analyze that", and Sam heard him. The man started laughing so hard he couldn't breath anymore. That was apparently a good distraction, and Pietro took advantage of it to sneak out of the room.

He was now walking through the endless corridors, heading toward the kitchen to get a bottle of water, when he saw Clint entering the same corridor, a few feet away from him. The man was still panting, probably coming back from the other training room. He had a simple black top on, which was clinging to his skin because of sweat, showing his toned chest a little too much, and Pietro caught himself staring at him for a little too long. After a few seconds, Clint finally noticed him, and gave him a strange look.

"Aren't you supposed to be training with Steve?" he asked him, confused

Pietro shrugged, answering that it was almost over and that he got bored. The old man rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything, following the runner. He was heading toward the kitchen too anyway. Neither of them said anything during the rest of the walk, and Clint found Pietro weirdly cold with him. Sighing, the archer resumed the conversation, saying that these trainings were important, and that learning how to analyze things before throwing himself into a situation was probably a good thing for Pietro.

"Yeah, it's easy to say that when you don't even have to be in it." Pietro laughed, rolling his eyes. "Can't believe you and Tony found a way of escaping this."

"I'll probably be there for the last training, but for now I'm busy. I don't really need it anyway, i'm an archer, I'm always in the back." Clint shrugged. "And Tony is just Tony."

An awkward silence fell between them, as they kept walking next to each other, Pietro silently cursing this way too long corridor. After a minute, they finally reached the open kitchen, and the silver-haired man opened the fridge. He grabbed two bottles of water and threw one at Clint, closing the fridge afterwards. The archer caught it easily, and leaned against the counter, turning his head to look out the window. "So, I heard you finally started talking with Tony. Found a new victim?" he grinned, before taking a long sip from the bottle.

The runner shrugged, answering that the man was alright. "I mean, he's annoying, maybe even more than you, but I guess I have a thing for older men." he added. Clint almost choked on his water, looking back at him. He wondered for a second if Pietro said that on purpose, or if he still had some problem with his english, but he then noticed the sly grin onto the young man's face. Without leaving him the time to answer, Pietro grabbed a pack of candy and walked away.

"Try to be careful when you go outside, the media are already after you." Clint shouted, as the runner was about to pass the door

Pietro turned his head toward him, still walking. "Afraid I'm gonna become more famous than you, old man?" he grinned, before disappearing into the corridor. Clint shook his head, as a smile crept onto his face. This kid was unbelievable.

He was about to leave the room too, when his glance fell onto the newspaper from this morning, folded neatly on the counter. _"The newbie of Avengers seen ordering a coffee for Tony Stark."_ was written in bold letters on the front page, just above a picture of him at the counter of a coffee. Rhodey was the one who had bought it this morning, showing it to Tony with a disapproving frown. Everyone had read it by now, except the twins. The team had tried all day to hide these papers from them, not wanting them to see what was inside it. Grabbing the newspaper, Clint crushed in into a ball before throwing it in the trash. It was obvious that sooner or later, Pietro was going to see it, but the later was the better. The media were saying that, since he was the one going out to buy coffee for Tony, maybe he wasn't as useful as they thought he would be. They said that he was apparently now the "domestic" of the Avengers, and that maybe he didn't really deserve his place in the team.

Clint knew this would happen one day. The media had taken interest in the twins since the day they joined the team. At first, the citizen didn't really care about them, until a picture of Pietro hugging Wanda had been released in the social media. It was during a new mission linked to Strucker's experiments, the team had to make sure there wasn't anything or anyone dangerous in the old building where they had been working. The twins had insisted on helping, but going back into this building had been hard for them, and they had been affected a lot by this.

After that, a lot of rumors had began spreading around, mostly about their relation. Half of the social media thought they were a couple, and the other thought they were sister and brother. Luckily, it all stopped when Steve used the term "twins Maximoff" during a conference. After that, the media kept talking about them, about their past, and this interest soon became harmful. Clint just hoped Tony wouldn't make things worse.

The feel of water running down his hand brought him back to reality, as he noticed that he had been clutching the bottle of water, which was now completely crushed. He threw it in the trash too, and walked out the room, now almost as angry as the time he learned Pietro had been selling his underwears on eBay to buy candies. Turned out "Hawkeye's underwear" interested a lot of people, and could be sold above a hundred dollars. Pietro only had the time to sell four of his boxers before Natasha informed her friend of his business, after Wanda told her everything, but Clint was pretty sure Pietro was now selling Steve's. He was now aware that "America sweetheart's underpants" were worth almost a thousand dollars.

He was heading back to the training room, ready to resume his exercise, when he walked pass the lab. He slowed down and looked at the glass wall. Pietro was in it, sitting on Tony's desk. The brunet was working on something on the table next to the runner, but stopped for a second, shoting him a glare. He said something, that Clint recognized as a "get out", and Pietro smirked, answering something that, this time, Clint couldn't read on his lips. The brunet laughed, and retorted "you wish", wiggling his eyebrows. The archer rolled his eyes, and walked away. He should stop worrying about Pietro, the kid was apparently Tony's burden now.

* * *

"You're gonna break Cap's heart, you know." Tony said, still looking at the motor he was working on

Pietro put his elbow on his knee, sitting cross-legged on the desk, and rested his head on his hand. "Then you'll have the opportunity to cheer him up." he smirked back, raising one eyebrow. Tony scoffed, shaking his head. Pietro had now been annoying him with Steve since he got into the lab five minutes ago. The brunet didn't know why, but the runner thought there was a weird tension between them, and that they needed to "bone."

He grabbed one of his tool and turned around, throwing it at Pietro. The runner easily ducked it, and Tony was then about to go back to his work when he noticed the silhouette of Clint walking away. "Talking about relations, I don't see you annoying Clint anymore." he suddenly blurted out absent-mindely. Pietro seemed a little taken aback by the question, but just shrugged.

"I don't know..." the silver-haired man hesitated. "I'm kind of annoying him now, I mean, in a bad way. Wanda told me maybe I needed to leave him alone a little."

Tony gave him a confused glance, but chose to leave it alone, focusing back on his work. After all, this wasn't his business. Clint had apparently messed things up, and this time things seemed more serious than usual, but this was maybe the first time Tony wasn't the troublemaker, and it was a way too comfortable position to actually do something about it.

Plus, he wasn't sure Clint hadn't messed things up on purpose. The man was pretty good at pushing people away.


	3. Attempt at dinner and late run

Things were never really easy for the avengers. There was danger everywhere, they always had to be careful, they felt like they couldn't trust anyone, and it was true. Putting their trust into people was hard, and most of the time, when people offered them kindness, it was a trap. Here, story repeated itself. Well, truth was, this time was slightly different. The person didn't pull him into a trap. He actually was the trap.

See, Pietro was a kind of parasite. Once he got close to you, you couldn't make him go away. At first, when he hated Tony, he wouldn't even be in the same room as him, but now that they had become sort of friends, he had started hanging out with him a lot, mostly to annoy him, and now Tony couldn't get rid of him. Pietro didn't really bother him, and Tony even liked having him around, but he couldn't let him see it. If the runner saw his behavior didn't really get on his nerves, he would completely back off, or start following him even more, and Tony wanted neither of those.

"When did I allow you in my lab exactly?" Tony suddenly asked, typing something on his computer

Sitting once again cross-legged onto his desk, Pietro didn't even look up from his phone. He was actually not talking to Wanda, but to Natasha. That could seem weird since they normally weren't that close, but they had started talking a few days ago after the twins got their phones. They didn't really want it at first, not thinking they needed it, but Tony had insisted, saying that they may need to join them at one moment or another. Pietro had immediately saw that the numbers of each members of the avengers were already saved into his phone, and had started annoying Natasha for no apparent reason. He had been really surprised when she actually answered. He was now arguing with her about Steve's new training. The thing was, she wasn't trying to lecture him about the importance of training, as a responsible avenger would. They were actually arguing on how they would have to torture Steve to make them stop. Natasha had been pretty quick to find a solution, sending him a simple "kill him".

There was a short silence between Tony and Pietro, and, thinking that the kid wasn't going to answer, the brunet was about to get back to his work, when Pietro absent-mindely mumbled a simple "Yesterday.", making Tony frown.

"... No, not at all." he said, looking back at him

"You said 'hi'." Pietro shrugged, still staring at the screen while typing

"Since when does 'hi' mean 'hey Speedy you can come into my lab to annoy me anytime'?"

A short laugh escaped Pietro's lips, and he retorted in a heavier accent than usual that his reaction wasn't so bad, so he took it as an invitation. He was too busy to care about how he was talking. Usually, he gave a little effort into talking clearly, trying to get rid of his accent, but now it was just a friendly conversation with one person, and he wasn't even paying attention to it. Somehow, unlike him, Wanda had already almost gotten rid completely of her accent. It could only be heard during missions, when things got messy, or when she stumbled upon words quite hard to pronounce.

To the righteous side of Pietro, it was a great improvement, but to his selfish side, it was another thing that separated them a little more. That's what he hated the most about being here. He felt like Wanda and him were growing apart. It wasn't true, and deep down he knew it, but it was his biggest fear and he couldn't just ignore it.

"It was a moment of weakness." Tony suddenly said, interrumpting him in his dark thoughts

"Your whole life is a moment of weakness." Pietro snorted, rolling his eyes

Tony suddenly turned around, and crossed his arms, staring at Pietro with a disapproving look. "And that's how you talk to your father?" he asked, raising one eyebrow. That seemed to be enough to get Pietro's attention, as the young man shook his head and finally put his phone aside, seeing that Natasha wasn't answering back anyway. He then sighed, and ran a hand across his face retorting that he wished he was adopted, when he suddenly seemed to realize something. A smirk crept on his face, and Tony glared at him, already knowing what he was going to say.

"... At least that means America's my dad too." he smirked

"First of all, you really need to add a "captain" to your sentence, I don't think America would be a great father figure. Second of all, if you keep saying I'm with Cap, I'll have to sleep with him." he stated

Pietro stared at the genius in bewilderement, as the brunet just stared back, looking quite proud of his statement. Seeing that Tony wasn't going to explain himself without Pietro asking him to, the runner sighed and said that he wasn't following him. Sometimes, the runner seriously felt like he was his audience. It was like Tony was a constant show, and he was there to encourage him in his stupidities. He didn't know yet if he found this annoying or entertaining.

"Well, as your father, I can't let you be a liar. Either you stop saying this, and I know it's not gonna happen, either I make it true." A long silence fell between them, as Pietro crossed his arms and stared at him with a judgemental glare. "But, just to be a good father, you know." Tony resumed

Pietro tried to keep scowling at him, but couldn't stop a smile from crepting onto his face after he heard his lame justification. This man was unbelievable. "Of course." he grinned, before remembering something. "By the way, talking about Captain America, after the training he asked me to tell you that you should be there at dinner, they'll talk about the next mission." Usually, they had a kind of "no work" rule at dinner, which obviously didn't concern stories about their old missions, because some of them were really nice to tell and to listen to, but this time it was different. It was a really busy period of the year and because of the different schedules they all had, they didn't have time to organize a meeting. Plus, for once, everyone was going to be there. Usually there was at least one or two person missing, being on a mission, resting, or just away to see some family.

Tony was already back to his work, and just nodded, absent-mindely telling him that he could just call him Steve. Pietro shrugged, already having heard this a hundred time from the Captain's mouth. He knew he could call everyone by their names, but, for now, he found it a little weird. He felt like he didn't know them enough, it wasn't natural. The runner was about to tell Tony that Captain America and Steve were the same thing anyway, when his glance fell onto the clock hanging on the opposite wall.

"Time to go." Pietro suddenly said, hopping off the desk. "You wouldn't want to disappoint your Captain, would you?" the silver-haired man grinned, walking out of the room

Tony rolled his eyes, saying that he really needed to choose between "America" or "Captain", but Pietro was already gone. Shaking his head, he looked down at his work again, but suddenly the room felt colder than before, too silent. Something was missing, a presence. Tony sighed. On second thought, Pietro wasn't really a parasite. He was annoying, invasive, and it was a real struggle to get rid of him, but when he was gone, you immediately wished he was back. He was worse than a parasite.

Pietro entered the endless corridor, and was about to just run to the living-room, using his powers, when he ran into Sam. The man was walking down the corridor, probably heading toward the same room, when he noticed the runner. Pietro rolled his eyes. He was hoping the bird wouldn't notice him, he didn't like him. Sam was an asshole, he was almost worse than him. Plus, he smiled a little too brightly at Wanda, Pietro didn't like it, he found it a little odd. Sam was now only a few feet away from him, and Pietro already knew that he was probably about to make a joke about Tony and him, so he interrupted him, unable to bear another of his many jokes.

"Weren't you supposed to be the one making dinner?" he asked, one eyebrow arched up

"You don't need time when you have talent, kiddo." Sam smirked as he kept walking down the corridor

Pietro smiled, before running past him while using his powers, shouting a "on your left" as he ran past Sam. The silver-haired man heard him grunt from behind him before he entered the kitchen-living room, hardly containing his laugh. Captain America had once told them how he used to do that to annoy Sam, and Pietro sure wasn't going to waste this precious information.

"Why are you smiling like that, brother?" a voice suddenly asked behind him

Pietro turned around and saw that Wanda was sitting on the couch, looking at him with a curious expression. He knew that by that question she meant "What did you do this time?", and grinned, answering that he didn't do anything, and that he only had a friendly conversation with Sam, because, technically, it was almost the truth. She shook her head, not believing any of his words, but chose to ignore it, and patted the empty place next to her on the couch. Pietro gave a quick glance at the television to see what she was watching, but quickly decided that he didn't care. He wouldn't mind to watch the borest documentary ever as long as he was with her.

He went to sit next to her when he suddenly noticed Clint, sitting in an armchair close to the couch, on Wanda's side. He hesitated for a second, not really wanting to sit near him. It was a childish behavior, he knew it, but he had to leave him alone, and being in the same room as him while not being able to talk to him felt weird, and made him uncomfortable. Wanda frowned when she saw him being so conflicted, but realization flashed across her face when she saw who he was looking at. He glanced back at her, and she gave him a warm smile, encouraging him to come sit with her anyway. After a few seconds, Pietro gave in, and went to cuddle with his sister, snatching a pillow away from her in the process.

Sam entered the room no longer after, going behind the counter to cook whatever he was going to poison them with, and people quickly started to gather in the room. Rhodey was the next to appear, sitting next to Wanda on the couch, with Clint on his left, and Tony followed after a few minutes. He sat in the armchair on the right on the couch, on Pietro's side, but didn't seem to pay attention to the movie. He was looking at Pietro and Clint, amused by the furtive glance Pietro gave to the archer once in a while. The genius leaned toward the silver-haired man, and lowered his voice, trying not to draw the others' attention.

"Still not talking to Clint?" he asked with an amused smirk on his face

"What are you talking about? We still speak to each other." Pietro denied, glaring at him

It was clear that the Maximoff twin didn't want to talk about that with him, but, after all, Tony was known for not caring about what the others wanted. The genius felt another glare being sent toward him, and looked around him. He saw Clint turning away from him to look back at the television, and widened his smile. These two were so obvious it wasn't even funny anymore.

"Well you're not as close as before." Tony added, leaning closer toward the young man to annoy Clint

"And how does that concern you?" Pietro hissed, still not looking at him, his eyes locked on the screen

His jaw was clenched and his body was now stiff, he looked like he could punch Tony at any moment. Wanda seemed to notice how tensed her brother was, and gave him a worry look. Her eyes then fell on Tony, and she frowned, giving him a look that cleary meant "you'd better leave him alone". Tony tried his best not to roll his eyes at her behavior. The twins could be so protective toward each other, he found it at the same time sweet but really annoying. Probably to careless to fear for his life, Tony ignored her, going back to his conversation with Pietro.

"You annoy me with Cap, so I annoy you with the bird." he shrugged, keeping a low voice

Pietro finally turned his head toward him, and gave him a death glare, almost making Tony wish he didn't push him so far. "Well mind your own business, Stark." he growled with a strong accent, drawing everyone's attention to them. The runner suddenly got up, his fist clenched, and disappeared in a blue blur. He dodged past Steve as the man entered the room, leaving the man confused behind him, wondering what had just happened. Steve gave a quick glance to the others, and saw that Wanda was about to murder Tony. It wasn't hard to understand what had just happened.

"... Well, I guess we can always just make him a report on what he missed." he sighed, running a hand across his face

Wanda shook her head and went after her brother, lowering her head when she walked past Steve to avoid his disapproving stare. He wasn't really disapproving her actions, he understood why she needed to go after him, they were twins after all, always there for each other, but he had to maintain a certain authority. If he said they were going to talk about the next mission during dinner, she couldn't miss it just because her brother had a fight with Stark, and it was the same for him, he couldn't just isolate himself because Tony was annoying. He just had to endure him, like everyone else. Sighing again, he went to help Sam behind the counter, saying that now they would probably need to organize a meeting. His friend laughed, and glanced at Tony, while trying to cook some weird preparation. "I can't believe Clint gave you advices and you still can't get along with him." he snorted. "You should just give up."

Tony got up and went to sit at the counter, having no interest in staying near the television now that Pietro was gone. He shot a disgusted glance at the "thing" Sam was cooking, before retorting that it was quite the opposite, that his advice worked, and that they even played again last night. The kid had bet that if he won, Tony would have to help him prank at least one avengers, but if he lost, he would have to get the brunet coffee everyday for a month. Obviously, he had lost once again.

"One day you'll have a full night of sleep, I believe in you." Rhodey said from the couch

"I couldn't say no, the kid wanted his return match and I wanted to kick his ass again." Tony shrugged

From his armchair, Clint was trying his best to ignore the warm feeling inside his chest. He had hated this new building relationship between Pietro and Tony since the beginning, thinking the genius was a bad influence and Pietro really didn't need that right now. He was new in the team, still trying to behave in front of the team, and hardly succeeding. He didn't need Tony to drag him along in his messy life. So, obviously, seeing that Tony was starting to annoy Pietro made him feel contented. He didn't want to be the one warning Pietro about the brunet. The kid was now ignoring him anyway, probably having found a new source of occupation in Tony.

"Guess now he's your burden." Clint chuckled

He immediately regretted saying such thins after the words left his mouth. Pietro wasn't a burden, he had never been, he couldn't say this about him knowing that the kid was actually really insecure about this. At every mission, he tried his best to help everyone, and even save everyone, even putting his life in danger half of the time. One day, after a mission, Steve had had to talk to him about his behavior, explaining to him that risking his own life wasn't always the best way of helping people, and that it was actually quite the contrary. Clint was not far away, unconsciously staying near him in case the kid wanted to talk, which was utterly improbable. Pietro didn't say anything to Steve that day, and went to sit next to Clint. His face was blank but his muscles were tensed, and he seemed deep in thought. The archer hadn't had to say anything before Pietro blurted out absent-mindely that he didn't want to be a burden. Actually, Clint hadn't had anything to say at all. The kid just kept talking, too tired, both mentally and physically, to care. He opened himself to Clint, telling him how he knew that Wanda was better than him in any conceivable way, and that he didn't want to be kicked out of the team because he was too weak. He needed to show them he mattered.

Remembering this, Clint felt even worse than before. He didn't where those harsh words came from, he didn't know why he felt such hatred towards Tony and Pietro. Sure, he had always said he didn't like this kid, but it was a lie and everyone knew it. He was always bothering him, but somehow, Clint had a soft spot for him, he wanted to help him, protect him from everything. He kept saying awful things about Pietro because he had a reputation to maintain, but he never went too far, because he didn't want to hurt him. And, more importantly, he never meant it like he just did. So why did he said that? Why did he believe in those words when they escaped his mouth? Where did this hatred came from?

"So what now, you plan on spending your nights together?" Sam smirked, interrupting him in his thoughts

"Why not, he could be a good one night stand." Tony grinned, wiggling his eyebrows

Clint unconsciously clenched his fists, furrowing his eyebrows. Well, at least now he knew where this hatred came from. He wasn't mad at Pietro, he was mad at the way Tony treated him. He didn't like their relation because of Stark. He didn't know Tony's attentions toward the young man, and he didn't understood why the genius found a sudden interest in him. Did he want more than Pietro's friendship? Did he want to play around with him? Tony had often had some one night stand, it wasn't surprising coming from him, but he couldn't do the same thing with Pietro. They were teammates, it could have a repercussion on the Avengers. Plus, he didn't know how Pietro would react. All he knew was that the kid was a beginner in relationship, he never had the time to care about this kind of things when he was still a teenager, and Tony was going to hurt him. He couldn't just play with him like that.

"Always knew this man was a cougar." Sam laughed, turning off the stove

Unable to stay there one more second listening to Tony, Clint got up, saying that he was going to get Natasha. He got out of the room at an angry, quick pace, walking past the counter without even glancing at the others. After he disappeared in the corridor, Tony could hardly contain his laugh. He couldn't believe Clint had fell so easily into this. This man had always been so calm, he only saw him burst out in anger once, after Pietro woke up from his near death experience. Usually, he would bottle up his feelings, not letting anyone see what he was feeling, or thinking. Only Natasha could see through him, but apparently, he couldn't handle jealousy very well.

"... He's not coming back, is he?" Steve sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with two fingers

"Who?" suddenly asked a voice near the doorway

He turned around, and his glance fell onto Natasha, who walked into the room, unaware of what had just happened, but probably not caring about it. Sam grinned, looking at Steve. The blond man rolled his eyes and went to sit on the couch with the others, giving up.

This team was a real mess, Steve was pretty sure one day they would drive him insane.

* * *

Staring off into the distance, Pietro was sitting on the edge of his bed, his knee jittering uncontrollably. He had been sitting there for only fifteen minutes and yet he could already feel energy building up in him, sending unpleasant shivers through his body. Wanda had left a few minutes ago, needing to go talk to Steve about what they had missed, but her words were still echoing in his head.

" _When I told you maybe you should give him some space, I didn't mean that, Pietro."_

He still didn't understand why she talked to him about that, he was upset because of Stark, not because of what was happening with Clint. After she had followed him in his room, Wanda stayed silent for almost ten minutes, letting him pace in his room like a lion in cage, mumbling some insults in sokovian about Tony. When he had finally calmed down, sitting on the edge of his bed, she had joined him, sitting close enough to make him feel like he wasn't alone while leaving him enough space. She had told him that he could still talk to Clint, that the problem wasn't there. The problem were all the little things he did that he didn't even notice. The way he was always sitting close to Clint, the way he followed him everywhere or how the archer was always the one suffering from his pranks... This was the problem. She looked really embarrassed while explaining that to him. She didn't want to be the one setting rules or putting up barriers, but she had to.

Now that he was all alone, Pietro kept thinking about how wrong she was. He didn't care about Clint, the fact that he couldn't talk to him anymore was the least of his concern. It didn't matter that he wasn't allowed to annoy him anymore, after all, it was just a distraction. Clint was nothing but a grumpy old man for Pietro, he wasn't important. And if for someone it looked like Pietro had started hanging out with Tony to replace the archer, then this person was totally wrong. Pietro didn't need Clint. He didn't need anyone besides his sister. Especially not this stupid archer.

Suddenly frustrated, Pietro got up and ran out of his room, disappearing in a blur. Running was the best way not to deal with his thoughts. He had to duck a few people on his way out, and each time he could see them stumble when the gust of wind he created almost knocked them over, but, this time, this didn't manage to make him smile like it always does. He was so mad. Pietro felt like he was angry at everything, at Stark, at Clint, even at Wanda for thinking that he was upset because of his lack of interactions with the archer. His head was full of thoughts, of questions, and he almost felt like suffocating, until he finally reached the door.

Pietro almost bursted through the glass door, desesperate to escape these corridors too crowded, and stopped as soon as his feet touched the grass. In the precipitation, he didn't even bothered to put on shoes, but it didn't really matter. He liked running without shoes on. He could feel the grass under his feet, the surface of the Earth, it was like it gave him a feeling of freedom. The problem was, he had to be really careful not to step on glass or anything harmful, and he couldn't run for too long. But right now, Pietro just wanted to run. So, without thinking about how he would hurt his feet, the silver-haired man took off, running at full-speed, and finally, he felt like nothing was wrong anymore. His head cleared as soon as he entered the forest, and he let his thoughts drift.

A lot of images came into his mind as he ran across the woods, principally from their childhood. The way Wanda's eyes brightened the day they ran into a dog on their way home, how she kept talking about the drawing they made to their parents, which was proudly pinned on a wall, how he couldn't sleep when there was a storm outside and how she always stayed up with him all night. Then came the dark thoughts that he tried to avoid most of the time, the memories he had from when they had to live in the street for a while, and the ones from Strucker's experiments. And as soon as he remembered their first encounter with the avengers, Clint's face appeared in his mind, and didn't left. Each memory he had from the day the moved in concerned him, and he couldn't help but realize that it was because these were his happiest memories. Pietro clenched his fists, furrowing his eyebrows, and was about to stop running when he tripped. Because of his speed, he didn't just fell, he went flying in the air and landed brutally a few feet away from where he tripped. Moaning, the runner rolled onto his back, and placed his forearm on his forehead, feeling blood dripping down his elbow before wound healed by itself.

He stayed there, laying down on the dirty path of the woods for at least ten minutes, groaning.

Wanda was right, he missed Clint.

He missed him really bad.


	4. Alcohol and Steve's underwear

The sun was already setting when Pietro walked back into the facility, with a tired look on his face. He didn't know how long he had stayed in the woods, just laying down and staring at the sky with his mind blank, but if it had been a possibility, he would just have stayed there for an eternity. He was mentally exhausted and his whole body ached from his fall. He didn't even want to get back inside and see other people. Things were too complicated and he just wanted to go to sleep and never get up again. That was something, given that Pietro hated going to sleep. It always took him ages to fall asleep, and he always woke up hours before everyone else. Plus, his nights were often filled with nightmares.

The runner was about to get in the elevator when he walked past Natasha and Steve. They almost didn't notice him, quietly talking about their next mission, when Steve's eyes fell onto him. The blond's neutral expression quickly changed into a worried one, as he asked him if he was alright. Pietro gave him a confused look, not really understanding why he was so concerned, and just nodded before entering the elevator. He pushed the button to the second floor and leaned against one of cold wall of the confined space, when his glance fell onto the mirror covering the opposite wall. Well, now at least he understood from where Steve's concern came from. His hair was a mess, or at least, more than usual, his shirt had a large tear near his side, and his sweatpants had some gashes too, exposing his knees. Plus, even though his wounds had quickly healed, they had left some blood on his skin and clothes. He looked more injured after a trip than after a mission, how was that even possible?

The elevator doors suddenly slid open, yanking him out of his trail of thoughts. Pietro entered the second floor, shuffling down the corridor, and let out an exagerated sigh when he ran into Tony, who had just entered the corridor. The brunet gave him a weird glance, looking him up and down, but didn't say anything as he kept walking beside the silver-haired man. Pietro wondered for a second if he was mad at him for what happened earlier. For a second, he told himself that he didn't care, and that Tony shouldn't have bothered him like that anyway, but on secong thought, he couldn't help but think that everything was already complicated enough, and that he wanted to be at least in good terms with Tony. His life had been really messy lately, he didn't want someone else to be angry at him. Looking down at his hands, Pietro bit his lips, embarrassed. He was bad at making apologies, and he hated it. Most of the time, he just ignored the problem until it was settled. It was just his way of dealing with problems: not doing anything about it. Pietro cleared his throat, drawing Tony's attention in the process who stopped walking to look at him.

"I'm... I'm sorry for earlier." Tony's eyebrows shot up in surprise, taken aback by the sudden apology he clearly wasn't expecting. "You weren't wrong. But you weren't right either. I guess I shouldn't have reacted that way." he shrugged.

It took Tony at least three seconds to react, and when he was finally about to answer that he wasn't waiting for an apology, the runner had disappeared. The brunet blinked, dumbfounded, and saw that a blue blur led to the end of the corridor. The moron had ran off before he could even answer. Sighing, he shook his head, walking towards his lab.

Tony had almost reached his lab when he ran into Wanda, because apparently walking into this building without seeing someone was impossible. He was about to ignore her, when he noticed the glare she gave him when she was only a few feet away from him. He couldn't stand this anymore. He didn't want to snap at her because, even though she was clearly annoying him, getting mad at him for an argument with Pietro she didn't really know about, he didn't want her to see him again as a bad guy. He already had a hard time gaining their trust, he didn't want to ruin it all over a stupid argument.

"C'mon Witchy, you can calm down, your brother's alright now." he told her in a nonchalant tone. "He even apologized to me for whatever reason."

She was about to just walk past him without saying anything, when she stopped walking, now standing right in front of him. She narrowed her eyes, and Tony realized that talking about it again may not have been a good idea. If he didn't say anything, she probably would have forget it in a few days. Now he was going to have to confront an angry Wanda, and nobody wanted that. Usually, she really wasn't scary. She was always really calm and respectful, talking quietly and shyly smiling at him when he ran into her, but when it came down to her brother, she could become really frightening. Only Tony had to confront this scary side of her, when she was angry at the others she would just give them cold stares and talk less. He received a different treatment because she still wasn't sure of his righteousness, and sometimes she stills saw him as an ennemy.

"I don't care that you think he's alright, he's not. I thought you were going to be good for him but all you do is upsetting him even more." she hissed. "I should never have told him to give you a chance."

"Good for him? What do you mean?" Tony frowned, confused.

"Nothing, it's just that you..." she seemed to hesitate for a second. "You kind of distracted him."

Tony's frown only deepened, until he realized that she was talking about what was happening between Clint and her brother. "... Oh, you're talking about Clint, aren't you?" he enquired. "So you're involved in that too." Pietro had apparently told her about this. Well, Tony should have realized this earlier, the twins told each other everything.

Wanda shook her head, not wanting to talk about this with Tony. The less he knew about this, the better. She knew everyone had already noticed that Pietro was kind of giving Clint the cold shoulder, but she didn't want anyone else involved in this. As long as they didn't discover the reason of their argument, it would be fine. Even Clint didn't know what was happening. If he did, he would go and try to talk to her brother, probably fixing everything in the end. They would start talking to each other again, maybe get even closer. She didn't want that.

"Just stop upsetting my brother, he doesn't need that." she concluded, walking away.

The genius shook his head, sighing, and headed toward his lab without looking back at her. Her brother was the one who had followed him everywhere for the last few days, and yet he was the one bothering him. Unbelievable.

When he finally got into his lab, his glance immediately fell on the man sitting on a chair next to his work table. He had one knee drawn to his chest, and was absent-mindely playing with the hem of the sleeve of the sweater he had just put on. The silver-haired man immediately looked up when he heard Tony entering the room, and gave him a look that cleary meant "don't ask" when he saw the confused glance the genius was giving him. After their argument, and the awkward apology that followed, Tony didn't think he would see him again this soon, but apparently, Pietro didn't want to be alone, or to confront Wanda.

He sat at his desk, ready to start to work again on the project that hadn't left his mind for months, but found himself staring blankly at the papers in front of him. Tony couldn't focus, not with Pietro being so down right across the room. He didn't know the whole story, he only knew that Pietro stopped talking to Clint for some reasons, and that it really bothered him, but the most important was that, apparently, he had been better the last few days because of Tony. Knowing that only his presence distracted Pietro from Clint somehow made him feel important, useful, and he now felt like it was his role. He was getting nice. Steve was a real bad influence on him.

Tony suddenly slammed his hands against the hard surface of his desk, drawing Pietro's attention to him. He turned around on his chair, facing the young man who was frowning at him. The kid was almost glaring at him, and Tony would have probably felt offended if he had ever cared about people glaring at him.

"Did you ever go to a bar?"

Pietro stared at him for a second, bewildered, and then seemed to ponder for a second. "Uh... Not really." he shrugged. "Only once, to steal some money from a drunk asshole."

"You have so many things to catch up with." Tony sighed. "Luckily for you, I agree to be your tutor."

Pietro was about to tell him that he never asked for a tutor when Tony stood up, and headed towards the door. He stopped for a second at the doorstep, throwing him a glance over his shoulder, as he waited for him to follow. Letting out an exagerated sigh, Pietro pushed himself out of his seat. As they walked down the corridor in silence, Pietro wondered why Tony was doing this. He glanced at the genius walking beside him, who was answering to Pepper on his phone, and quickly concluded that he was just bored and that he wanted to go out. As they stepped into the elevator, Steve's words from this morning suddenly echoed in Pietro's head. He looked over at Tony who had just put his phone back in his pocket.

"America told me that I needed to put something on to hide myself when I go out." he suddenly said, making the billionaire's eyebrows furrow. "Like sunglasses and a cap..." he added, uncertain.

"Will you ever stop calling him America? He's not a country." Tony sighed.

Pietro rolled his eyes, and corrected himself, looking at Tony with a bored expression. " told me that I needed to put something on to hide myself when I go out." he repeated, almost smirking.

"Don't worry, we're not going too far away from here, plus it's been calm lately we won't be attacked." Tony answered, ignoring his provocation.

"He was talking about the medias too."

"Medias are always going to find of way to talk about you on their papers. You can either spend your entire life hiding behind sunglasses, or come with me now and learn to accept it."

Pietro stared at him for a few seconds, astonished. He never thought Tony could be this serious, he almost looked like a father figure right now. He was always joking around, mocking people, not taking anything seriously, but here it was almost as if he just wanted to teach Pietro real, useful things. As if he wanted to help him in this new life. The elevator came to an abrupt stop as they reached the first floor. Tony was just returning his stare, waiting for him to answer. Pietro could see a hint of confusion in the brunet's eyes, as he wondered if the young man was actually going to go for a heartfelt answer.

The doors slid open, and Pietro opened his mouth, his eyes filled with emotions. But then, Tony noticed a hint of mischief sparkling in the runner's blue eyes, as his expression suddenly transformed into an indifferent one. "Don't get too emotional, Stark, I still don't like you." he grinned, as he got out of the elevator, leaving a stunned Tony behind him. "You didn't see that coming?" he then shouted as he kept walking towards the front door.

"You know what, kid? You should put a cap on." Tony said, stepping out of the elevator. "The medias think I'm the worst, they're definitely not ready for you."

Pietro kept walking, as if he was just ignoring his comment, but Tony noticed that his shoulders were shaking. A smirk crept onto Tony's face as he followed him outside. He knew the young man wouldn't be able to keep a straight face, no one could resist the old Stark charm. "Already senile, Stark?" Pietro suddenly asked him, leaning against his car. Tony realized that he had said that last sentence out loud, and just shrugged. "You wish, I know you're just with me for the inheritance you gold digger." he smirked, as he got into the car.

Pietro took the passenger seat, and gave him a confused look, asking him what "gold digger" was supposed to mean. Tony started the car, and answered with a simple "you". The silver-haired man snickered, shaking his head.

"Well, now I see why they call you a genius."

Tony shook his head, grinning, and started the car.

This night was going to be interesting.

* * *

Actually, this night wasn't _that_ interesting.

Tony was leaning a little too much against the counter, almost slumping onto it. They had drank a few glasses of alcohol, echanging some snark comments and gossiping like some twelve years old about their teammates. Pietro was, of course, still sober, thanks to his fast metabolism, and was quietly humming the song that was playing in the bar. Well, he wasn't drunk, but he still was a little tipsy. They hadn't planned on drinking a lot, they had just asked for a drink, and as the night went on, took another one while joking about Steve's underwear, and then another one while discussing the way Vision and Sam were a little too interested by Wanda, and again another one while singing along the new Taylor Swift song. It was now currently midnight, and they had been there for two hours. Tony was holding the glass that was going to make him go from a little merry to drunk.

"What is this thing called already?" Pietro asked, looking up as if he could contemplate the music.

"AC/DC, you uncultured swine." Tony grunted as he took another sip from his drink.

"Oh come on, you're too happy you made me discover this band."

"I had already introduced Steve to it, but he didn't really like it." the brunet grumbled, almost pouting. "Guess he's more into the national anthem." he snorted.

This reminded Pietro of the songs Clint would listen to when he was alone in the training room, or cooking. He was always listening to some classic rock, and the young man would always mock him for this, talking about his age or about how this music didn't sound good. Clint would usually respond to his attempt to annoy him with a simple glare, or with an exagerated gasp when he was in a good mood. Unconsciously, Pietro lowered his head, as a sad expression appeared on his face. He didn't know if it was because of the alcohol, but without the presence of his sister or Clint, he suddenly felt really lonely. He felt like he was losing everyone he knew, like they were all slowly getting away from him.

Despite his drunken state, Tony noticed Pietro's smile disappearing from his features, as his mood darkened. He immediately knew what was wrong, even though the young man didn't have any reason to think about this, and sighed. He was going to be nice again, wasn't he? He really should start avoiding Steve. Next thing he knew, he was going to become Captain Stark. Leaning a little towards Pietro, Tony rested his elbow on the young man's shoulder, drawing his attention back to him.

"I'm actually going to give you a good advice so you'd better listen, it only happens once a year." Tony said, straightening up in his seat a little. "I don't know what's happening between Legolas and you, but, even though it's really funny to watch, you should stop ignoring him. You two had a good relationship, he always smiled a lot brighter around you, you somehow managed to get a place in his heart, if not in his bed. He still hasn't shot you, so I guess it means in bird talk that he likes you a lot. You shouldn't ruin it over a stupid argument or whatever it was, I don't really care." he concluded, talking lower and lower towards the end of his monologue, as if speaking was a real effort.

This time, Pietro didn't even mock him. Tony was drunk, and actually trying to help him, giving him advices to get him out of a situation that really bothered him. There was no point in using his usual defense mechanism: snarky remarks. He was sad, and lonely, shutting him out wouldn't lead Pietro anywhere. So, he did something he had always forbid himself to do. He opened himself to someone else than his sister.

"I don't want to lose what we had, but what if he really don't want me around anymore?" Pietro asked, sounding more vulnerable and helpless than he ever did.

Tony shook his head. "Trust me, Clint would never want to lose someone. He care about everyone around him. Even about an arroguant, stupid, annoying moron." His voice suddenly sounded more strong and steady than before, as the genius talked thoughtfully about his friend's loyalty.

"You're gonna make me blush..." Pietro smirked, unconsciously using once again his sarcasm when the conversation got too serious.

"C'mon, don't you miss him?" Tony slurred, taking another sip from his drink while leaning a little more onto Pietro's shoulder.

"... Of course I do." Pietro said."But I don't think he does." he added, biting his bottom lip, suddenly insecure.

Tony rolled his eyes, feeling like he was talking to a wall. "He's been glaring at me since you started talking to me, trust me he miss you." he snorted, his eyebrows furrowing at the thought.

Pietro, who had been staring at the counter the entire conversation, turned his head so fast he almost cricked his neck. He stared at Tony in bewilderment, and opened his mouth, then closed it, unable to form any word. Clint was jealous? He couldn't believe it, it seemed unreal. He saw the archer glaring at Tony once or twice lately, but thought he just didn't like him. After all, he wouldn't be the first to despise the billionaire. The thought of Clint being jealous of his relationship with Tony felt surreal since the archer didn't seem really appealed by his own relationship with Pietro.

"Go get him, tiger."

Tony's garbled words suddenly brought Pietro back to reality, and the young man blinked at him for a few seconds before suddenly getting up. Tony was right, Pietro couldn't keep ignoring Clint. He knew Wanda told him that staying away from him would be for the better, but it wasn't good for him, nor for Clint apparently, so what was the point? He wanted to see Clint again, and that was all that mattered. Wanda would understand, and she would probably agree with him if she knew that Clint was jealous, because it meant that Pietro didn't annoy him that much.

"Ok, but I won't leave you here, would kill me." Pietro said, quickly grabbing Tony's jacket and the car keys.

* * *

It only took them five minutes to come back from the bar, probably because Pietro drove as fast as he ran. It was an empty road, and there was no cops, but still, Wanda would probably kill him if she saw hi being so reckless. He slowed down when they got near the facility, and tried to park, when he heard a screeching sound coming from the left side of the road. Wincing, he glanced at Tony, who was talking to Rhodey on his phone, probably sending him things he would regret in the morning.

"Look like you scratched your car when you came back from the bar, Stark."

Tony looked at him, and grunted that he was drunk, not stupid. Pietro's eyes widened, as he asked him how he could be so lucid after so many glasses of alcohol.

"A drunk genius is still more clever than an average man." the brunet shrugged, matter-of-factly.

The silver-haired man stared at him for a few more seconds, before deciding that he didn't have time for that and getting out of the car. Now he would just have to wish that the genius wouldn't remember this in the morning. He waited for Tony to get out of the car, before locking it, and walking toward the building at a quick pace. He was about to get inside, when he glanced at Tony over his shoulder to see if he was still following. The billionaire looked like he had some troubles keeping his balance, but still walked with his usual confidence, keeping his head high walking past Pietro like he wasn't drunk at all.

Pietro shook his head, trying to hide his snigger, and followed him into the property. He told him goodnight, about to head towards the training room where, hopefully, Clint would be, when Tony stopped him. He gestured for him to come closer, and Pietro took a few, hesitants steps towards him. The brunet then straightened is sweater, took his sunglasses out of his jacket pocket, putting them on Pietro's head, and ran a hand into his silver hair, trying to style it a little, while the young man just stared at him, perplex. Since when did alcohol change Tony Stark into a sort of dad? Wasn't he supposed to become a crazy, reckless, party-animal?

"Oh, wait, shit." the brunet suddenly cursed. "What is your hair, kid?" he asked, running another hand through his hair, trying to fix what he had just done.

Pietro sighed, keeping himself from pinching the bridge of his nose. "... What did you do to my hair?"

"Well I just tried to style it but now it's... it's sticking out everywhere. What is this, your hair can't do that, there's a thing called gravity, you know." Tony complained, in a fight with Pietro's white strands.

"I don't care, Stark, just let me go." Pietro groaned.

"No, wait." the brunet stopped, resting his head against his fist as he pondered for a second, trying to come up with a solution. "Take your sweater off. It will distract him, he won't notice your hair."

Pietro grinned, and shook his head, telling Tony to go to sleep. The genius grimaced, apparently not appealed by the idea, but got inside the elevator anyway, giving the young man a thumb up before the doors closed in front of him. With a faint smile still plastered on his face, Pietro asked Jarvis to make sure Tony wasn't going back to his lab, because a drunk genius could be very dangerous, and headed towards the training room. Usually, Clint was asleep at this hour, he wasn't a night howl like Tony or Pietro, he was more like Steve, always up at an early hour. But, he would always train late when he was upset, it was his way of getting his mind off things.

When Pietro saw Clint lifting weights in the training room, his heart fluttered in his chest. He stared a little too long at the man, watching his muscles flex every time the brunet lifted his arms. He then looked up and saw the thoughtful expression on his face, his deep brown eyes staring at the wall in front of him, a few feet away from Natasha who was fighting a punching bag. Pietro's eyebrows furrowed, as he stared at the archer, deep in his thoughts. He knew he was only supposed to talk to him, annoy him with his usuals snarky remarks, but right now he wanted so much more. He had never tried to hide his feelings, it was pretty clear that, most of the time, he was flirting with Clint. He even did it shamelessly in front of the team sometimes, and everyone was aware of how the young man felt, everyone except Clint. No one said anything because they didn't know if it was serious or not, only his sister knew that her brother got it bad. He was now tired of beating around the bush.

The young man stepped into the room, his heart beating fastly in his chest. He didn't know if it was because he was a little tipsy, or because it was late and right now it was just the two of them, but he wanted it to be the night. He wanted to tell him everything, even though he would most certainly risk losing him. He didn't want to pretend anymore.

Noticing the new presence in the room, Clint looked up, his glance falling onto Pietro. The young man was confidently walking toward him, probably about to annoy him like he didn't just spend his last days ignoring him. The archer's look turned into a scowl, as he looked away from the runner, grunting.

"Go back to annoying Tony, kid. I don't have time for you."

Pietro's eyebrows shot up, as his cheerful expression suddenly disappeared from his face, replaced by a wounded one. Clint glanced at him, and met his eyes full of hurt. He suddenly regretted his words and opened his mouth, about to say something, anything that would make the situation better, when anger suddenly filled Pietro's eyes. His eyebrows furrowed, and, not even letting Clint justify himself, the runner turned around and disappeared into a blue blur. The archer stared at the glass doors for a few seconds, his lips pressed into a thin line, looking like he wanted to go after him, but looked away, going back to lifting his weights.

"You're jealous." Natasha simply stated, not even looking at him. "And you're going to lose him."

Clint grunted, retorting that he wasn't jealous, and the redhead quickly glanced at him, raising an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. If he didn't want to face his feelings, she wasn't going to force him to. It was his choice, to aknowledge them or not. She didn't even understand what was happening between them. They suddenly heard a crash coming from upstairs, and looked up at the ceiling, their eyebrows knitted together. Natasha shook her head, sighing, and got back to punching the bag.

Things were going to get really messy, she at least hoped it wouldn't disturb the mission.

Pietro was sitting on his bed, staring at the tablet he had just slammed against his wall. It had been left in his room, probably by Steve, with a report of their next mission in a week. Breaking it had proably not been a great idea, but, at this moment, the young man didn't care about this.

Tony had told him that Clint was jealous, it meant that he was probably missing him, and that things could be back to how they were before, but he was apparently wrong. Clint didn't care about him, he didn't want him around anymore. Once again, Wanda was right.

But, luckily for him, Pietro didn't need Clint either.

And it was time to forget him.


	5. Newspapers and sign langage

This was one of these mornings where Tony wanted to crawl under his covers and never open his eyes again. He knew these mornings too much. The sun was coming in through the crack of the curtain, automatically opened by Jarvis who had just woke him up for a reunion, and Tony grudgingly rolled onto his back, moaning. He cracked one eye open, resting his arm on his forehead, and soon realized it was a bad idea when a beam of sunlight hit his retina. He grunted, closing it again and smashing his pillow over his head. He couldn't remember exactly what had happened yesterday to give him such hangover, all he knew was that he went to a bar with Pietro. He hoped he didn't do anything too reckless that he would have to fix in the morning.

He tried to sit up, and frowned, feeling a constant pounding in his head. He felt like he was going to throw up, and stopped moving, staying still. He carefully opened his eyes, and ran a hand over his face, yawning. Tony looked around him with squinting eyes, and suddenly noticed a presence beside him. He was about to ignore it, thinking that it was just Pepper, when he suddenly remembered that he wasn't with Pepper anymore. His eyes widened, as he watched the body shift under the cover. The person sat up, finally turning his face to look at Tony.

"Hi, babe." Pietro smiled, propped up on one elbow.

"Oh my fucking-" Tony stumbled over his words, almost shouting.

He tried to get up but he found his legs being tangled in the covers, falling off the bed. The brunet hit the ground with a loud thump, and stayed down, laying on the ground with wide, mortified eyes. He didn't sleep with Pietro, did he? He suddenly heard a loud booming laugh coming from the bed. Tony sat up with difficulty, feeling pain in every single muscle he had, and looked up the man now standing up beside the bed.

"It was almost too easy." Pietro smirked, before rushing off, disappearing in a blue blur.

Tony groaned, letting himself fall onto his back once again, and put his arm over his forehead. His head was throbbing, and falling off the bed certainly didn't help him. He hated this kid.

* * *

Tony had never been the more focused during meetings, even when he was the one running it, and being hangover sure didn't help him. During the three hours long meeting, the genius had considered a few times just getting up and leaving, but found himself too lazy and tired to leave his chair. Instead, he had spent half of the time on his phone, going through the messages he had sent, and the answers he had gotten. Long story short, Pepper was worried and exasperated at the same time, Rhodey was having the time of his life, and Steve was talking to him about values and about the influence he had on the news avengers. Wrinkling his nose, Tony skimmed through the messages he had sent them to make them answer this. At least he could always tell himself that he had done worse.

Still on his phone, Tony grudgingly got up from his chair when the meeting finally ended, and walked down the corridor, getting into the elevator to go to the second floor, heading towards the common room. He had just stumbled upon the new articles written about him when the doors slid open, letting him reach the room. As he entered the common area, his glance fell onto the ones already there. Steve and Clint were at the counter, staring at a newspaper with a disapproving glare, as if they were trying to lecture it. Rhodey was there too, but just grabbed a bottle of water before exiting the room, sending his friend an empathetic glance as he walked past him. Tony frowned, wondering if it was the news he had just saw on internet. He sincerely hoped it wasn't this. The genius only had time to take a few steps into the room before Steve noticed him. Weirdly, the blond didn't glare at him, or try to lecture him. He just shook his head, sighing.

"Try to be careful when you go outside, Tony. Especially if you're with the new recruits." he said as he walked out of the room, leaving him alone with what seemed like a very upset Clint.

Actually, Tony would have prefered an endless monologue of Steve about privacy and security than being left alone with the archer. He didn't look really pleased. Tony didn't know if it was just about the article, or if his relation with Pietro was involved too, but he didn't want to know.

Trying to ignore the glare that Clint was sending him, Tony walked behind the counter, grabbing a cup of coffee. He turned around, putting it in the coffee maker, when the newspaper was slammed against the counter, right in front of him. He glanced at it, his eyes lingering for a few seconds on the bold letters on top of the page, before going back to Clint.

"I already read it, but thanks." he said nonchalantly.

He already saw the picture of him sitting at the counter of a bar with Pietro, laughing at a lame joke the runner had made. He remembered the title, written in huge letters, "The Speedster already following the wrong path". He also didn't forget the short interview with Bucky right below it, from when a journalist had managed to catch him in the street. She had asked him how he felt about the new recruit, and, as the clueless man he was, Bucky had simply answered "He likes to stick magnets on my arm." before walking away without another work spoken. He remembered this article, he had read it like five minutes ago. He just chose not to care.

"Do you even see the bad press you're giving him?" Clint snarled.

Tony sighed, taking his cup back, now full of steaming black coffee, and turned around to stare at Clint with a deadpan expression. At first, this little game was really funny, but now Tony was sick of it. He was sick of being the bad guy just because Clint was missing Pietro and thought that Tony was somehow responsible of what was happening. The medias talked about Pietro because they wanted to talk about Pietro, if Tony didn't bring him to that bar last night, they would have talked about something else, this was just how things were. He was their target because he was more reckless and rebellious than his sister, he seemed problematic, and they liked it. Tony couldn't do anything about it.

"It's nothing, Clint. We all went through this." Tony retorted, looking more annoyed than ever.

"This is not nothing for him, he's new in this team, he's not used to it." Clint scowled, clenching his jaw without noticing it.

"And that's why I'm preparing him." The genius finally exclaimed as a matter of fact. He took a sip of his coffee, before giving a sarcastic grin, raising his cup towards him as to cheer. "You're welcome."

Tony walked out from behind the counter, passing next to Clint. Still sitting on one of the few stools, the archer turned a little to face the brunet, giving him a unconvinced look. Ignoring the look the agent was giving him, Tony headed towards the door, ready to go back to his lab now that he had his hourly coffee. "People are going to come after him, no matter what he does." he concluded as he passed the doorframe.

"People would stop coming after him if you stopped exposing him that much."

Tony suddenly stopped by the doorframe, clenching his fists. That was it. He couldn't handle another comment like that. He couldn't handle for another second to be the bad influence, the mean guy, who was ruining the poor new recruit's life. For all he knew, right now, Clint was more the one who was ruining Pietro's life.

The genius closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, before putting his mask back on, wearing his ususal indifferent expression. He turned around, walking toward the archer who was now standing up beside his stool, glaring at him. "Yeah, you're right, poor Pietro, I'm exposing him. You know what? You should keep him away from me, he needs your protection." Tony mocked, only stopping a feet away from Clint. He saw anger fill the archer's eyes, and smirked.

"Stop treating him like a kid, you and I both know this is not the problem."

Clint unconsciously clenched his jaw, and Tony took another step toward him defiantly. The tension was thick, almost unbearable, and they were just waiting to see which one of them would throw the first punch, when Tony saw the archer's eyes focus on something behind him. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Pietro leaning against the doorframe, staring at Clint with an unreadable expression. He must have been really upset, because the young man always wore a smirk, or had a hint of mischief in his eyes, showing that he never took anything seriously. Without another word, Tony turned around and left the room. This didn't concern him anymore, and he sure wasn't about to stay in the room by pure interest.

After the genius left, a heavy silence settled between Clint and Pietro. The archer was expecting him to run off like he always did when something concerned him, especially since they hadn't been in good terms these last days, but the young man didn't move, remaining silent. He kept staring at him in a way that almost made Clint feel uncomfortable. Luckily for him, the brunet rarely felt uncomfortable, probably because he didn't really care about anything.

Plus, he was Clint Barton for fuck's sake, he had no reason to be embarrassed because a moron was staring at him.

"I know what's happening, I read news you know." Pietro suddenly said, lifting an eyebrow.

"And you're fine about it?" Clint enquired, trying to ignore how pissed the twin looked.

"Yes, because I'm not a baby." he snorted. "I'm used to people talking shit about me. It was the same thing in my country, except people said this in your face instead of in media."

"I just thought it would be easier for you if..." Clint claimed, rubbing his neck because he was actually starting to feel like he was wrong and it wasn't a pleasant sensation.

"You don't know anything about me, Barton." Pietro snapped. "I'm not a kid, I'm twenty-four, and I don't need you to protect me from anything."

The archer opened his mouth to retort something, but the young man had already disappeared. Sighing, Clint went to sit back on his stool, pinching the bridge of his nose. This time, he might had been the one who screwed up. Probably for the first time of his life, Pietro was right. Clint had been nozy, and while wanting to help him he had made unfair accusations.

But there was still one thing Clint didn't understand: the young man still looked more upset than he should have been. He knew that last night he had been a little harsh with the speedster, but Pietro had been the one who had started avoiding him in the first place. Clint didn't really know why he had rejected him like that in the training room, he felt like it was once again because of Tony. Seeing the young man getting so close to Tony had annoyed him all week, and seeing Pietro avoiding him sure didn't help. Now he couldn't stop thinking about Natasha's words. What he was feeling couldn't be mistaken for anything but jealousy, it was true, but he didn't want it to be that. He couldn't be jealous.

Clint shook his head, trying to think about something else. He shouldn't get so worked up on this, Pietro wouldn't stay upset forever, his anger would tone down after a few days and things would go back as they were before.

* * *

It turned out that Pietro could actually stay upset forever.

It had now been about three days, and his anger hadn't toned down a little. Things were actually worse than before. Pietro had been excessively cold with Clint, and about all the team had now noticed. He was now always sticking to Tony, who would probably have tried to make him forgive Clint if he hadn't been so fed up by their argument. The genius now simply accepted Pietro's presence without any complain. After all, why would he want to turn down a good friend for someone who had accused him once again of being a bad influence?

The thing was, once the others started to notice, Clint thought that Wanda would do something, talk to her brother and maybe even put a stop to it, but she chose not to aknowledge it. He didn't talk to her about it because he knew it was his mistake and he was the one who needed to make it up to Pietro, but things would have been way easier if she did something. The archer wasn't even going to try to fix the situation. Clint didn't want to think about, nor to do anything about it. He wasn't jealous, he didn't want to be, and somehow he thought that ignoring the situation would help. Plus, he was wondering if things weren't better like that. He liked being close to Pietro, he had always felt a lot of affection towards him, but most importantly, he wanted what was best for him, and he was certainly not it. Clint knew that there was something between them, a sort of tension, but he couldn't let it go further. He was too old for Pietro, he had too many demons, he knew the young man could find someone better. So putting distance between him and the runner was probably the right thing to do, after all. That didn't mean it didn't hurt, though.

"I'll go with Stark, wouldn't want to bother Clint."

Steve shot a surprised glance at the new recruit, but simply nodded, quickly resuming his plan. He had given him the choice after all, he just expected him to choose the archer for the first phase of their mission. They had to recon the base before they acted, and Steve had given each member the area they would work in, before telling Pietro he could start wherever he wanted since he would cover the entire base. Thanks to his speed, he could go through the entire area without being noticed, so where he started didn't really matter, it just meant he get there with Tony.

Clint didn't even look at the runner, still staring at Steve gesturing a lot while explaining how the mission would go, as if he hadn't heard the younger man. As if the words weren't echoing in his head. He couldn't help but wonder if the similarity with what he had said to him that night in the training room was made on purpose. _"Go back to annoying Tony, kid. I don't have time for you."_ his own voice echoed in his head, as he winced at his own words. Why did he have to say that? If he didn't, Pietro would still be avoiding him a little, but without the coldness and the harsh words. The situation would have been exactly what he needed.

The archer suddenly felt someone kick his leg under the conference table, and turned his head toward Natasha. She slightly tilted her head, giving him a confused look. He understood that she was silently asking him what was going on with Pietro, and simply shook his head, dismissing her. He would explain it to her later. The brunet didn't really understand why she didn't ask him earlier, since she must had noticed what was going on a few days ago like everyone else, but didn't look too much into it. She must have thought that Pietro would just forget it and that things would quickly go back to normal like him. Natasha never liked to get involved in situations like that, especially when they could fix themselves on their own.

Clint looked back at Steve, trying to focus, but felt once again his friend kick him, a little harder this time. He let out an exagerated sigh, and glanced back at her, giving her a stern stare. She didn't flinch, used to his charming personality, and quietly started to sign under the table to not draw the other's attention.

" _Did you manage screw up again or is it about what happened in the training room?"_ she signed smoothly with quick movements, having learned the sign langage a few years ago.

" _Screwed up again."_ Clint signed back, barely looking at her, glancing from times to times at Steve.

" _And_ _how are you going to fix it? Not that I mind the tension, but it's getting annoying."_

" _I won't."_ Clint concluded, before turning back towards the head of the table, putting an end to the conversation.

The archer felt Natasha's stare burning his back, but didn't look back at her. His eyes unconsciously wandered across the table, where Pietro was sitting. The runner was leaning towards Tony who was sitting next to him, and whispered something to his ear, making the genius snicker. Clint's eyebrows furrowed, as he clenched his jaw. He looked away, still repeating the same sentence incessantly in his head. It was for the best, Pietro deserved better.


	6. Texas and threats

"So, there's still nothing between you and ?"

It was late, and almost everyone was asleep in the quiet facility, except the two most annoying members of the avengers. Tony was sprawled across the couch, occuping half of it, and Pietro was sitting upside down on the couch, his feet dangling over the back. The genius had called him a kid for this, but the runner had simply shrugged, telling him he was tired of just sitting down. It was around midnight and they only had started to play half an hour ago, Pietro hadn't even had to send him at least ten messages to make him come in the living-room this time.

Tony didn't complain anymore to come play with him, it had almost became a routine, Pietro started playing around midnight as usual, and Tony would join him not long after. The speedster would finally go to sleep two hours later, and the brunet would go back to his lab. The only problem was that Tony now slept even less than before, and Pietro would probably have been worried about that if he was a good friend. Luckily, he was just Pietro.

"So you're allowed to talk to me about Cap, but I can't say anything about Legolas?" Tony snorted, taking another sip from his beer.

He usually wasn't a sucker for beer, he was more into coffee or expensive alcohol, but when Pietro went to grab a drink from the fridge, he threw one at Tony, and the genius didn't really mind drinking a beer once in a while.

"There's nothing to say about it." Pietro shrugged, still looking at the screen. "What do you want to know?"

Tony glanced at him, the question having managed to catch his interest. He seemed to ponder for a second, all while trying to stay focus on the game. "Did you keep one of his underwear?" he suddenly asked. "I'm sure you did." he added, a smirk appearing on his lips.

"Seriously, Stark? You can ask me anything about Clint and you ask me about his boxers?"

Could the young man sitting upside down on a couch because he was too hyperactive to stay still really call him out on his childish behavior? He snorted, but knew better than to argue with him on that. They were both so stubborn that their arguments could go on for hours, and, even though their bickering was always more entertaining than upsetting, Tony wasn't in the mood for one.

"Wait, I really can ask you anything? We didn't really settle the rules." he said, narrowing his eyes as he tried to focus on their race.

"There's no rules. Ask me whatever you want on whoever you want and I'll answer to it, but after this I can do it too. I have to get something out of this."

"Ok." Tony marked a pause, taking another sip from his beer while playing easily with one hand. "Do you actually like him?"

He didn't even have to say his name, at this point "him" always meant the same person in their conversation. "What are you, twelve?" Pietro snorted, rolling his eyes, which looked stupid when done upside down. Tony glared at him, retorting that he said he would answer to anything. Pietro huffed, and the brunet thought he wouldn't answer, wondering if he had crossed a line, it was still a touchy subject. The limit was really blurry between them, there was moment where they wouldn't even talk to each other if it wasn't to tease the other, and others where they would easily talk about more intimate things, like their concerns about things or even their past.

"... I guess I do." Pietro admitted, biting his lower lips. Tony didn't know if it was of concentration or of hesitation. "But it doesn't really matter now." he added, trying to end the conversation.

"What? You're really going to give up after one little argument?" the genius blurted out, taken aback.

They never really talked about what was happening between Pietro and Clint, but he had always thought things would remain unchanged. Clint would unconsciously play hard to get and Pietro would still chase after him, that was how things had been until then. Well, Clint didn't really play hard to get, but he sure didn't help Pietro. He never rejected him but he had always put limits with him.

Tony knew Pietro wanted to put distance between them, but he didn't think it was this serious, and he didn't ask more about it because it wasn't his business and he didn't care enough.

"He made it clear that he didn't want to have anything to do with me anymore." the speedster grumbled, suddenly pushing the buttons on his controller harder. "We said one question by the way, it's my turn now."

"Alright." Tony shrugged, absent-mindely finishing the race at the first place as if it was the easier thing he had ever done. Pietro groaned, throwing his controller onto the couch, and put his arms behind his head, looking like he was in a comfortable position even though the blood must have been rushing to his head by now. He glanced up at Tony, and pondered for a second, his eyes narrowing, when a grin suddenly appeared on his lips.

"Do you want to buy one of 's underwear? Two thousands only for the star spangled one."

Well, now he had definitely caught Tony's interest.

They stared at each other for two seconds before the genius suddenly bursted into laughter, throwing his head back. The slight grin Pietro had on his face became a wide smile before turning into a giggle too at the sight of his friend having an uncontrollable fit of laughter. They soon got a message from Natasha telling them to shut up before she had to get out of her room to put them down, and it only made them laugh harder, the lack of sleep suddenly making everything look hilarious.

Pietro got up after a few minutes, as Tony wiped the tears of laughter from his eyes. He walked toward the fridge, and was about to grab another beer when the brunet stopped him, telling him he had better. He walked out of the room under Pietro's confused eyes, and walked back in two minutes later with a bottle of tequila in his hand, saying that he needed something stronger than beer if he wanted to go through another conversation with Pietro. The young man's eyebrows knitted at the sight of the bottle. "Aren't we supposed to stay clean? forbid alcohol most of the time, especially two days before a mission." he reminded the brunet, frowning.

"Rules..." Tony started before being cut by Pietro.

"If you tell me that rules are made to be broken, I walk out of the room. Even I know that this sentence has been used way too many times." he pointed out.

He didn't know a lot of things about american langage or culture, but he had seen enough movies to know what kind of sentence were cliché. Tony gave him a stern look, refusing to admit that he was actually about to use that sentence, and resumed.

"Rules are made to be followed, kid. I'm not a good influence but I'm not _that_ bad." he stated. "On the other hand, rules made by Cap are made to be broken."

* * *

If he wasn't as drunk as he was by now, Tony would have thought "Well, this definitely was a bad idea". But he had drank half a bottle of alcohol, and was drunkily dancing on some old song from the seventies, so the concept of a good idea was biased.

The music wasn't too loud to wake up the others, but loud enough to distract Pietro, who started humming along as soon as Tony turned on the speaker, even though he didn't know the song at all. He wasn't really drunk because of his high metabolism, like the last time, but he was still tipsy. The brunet was banging his head along with the music, dancing a little, waving his arms around while trying not to spill his drink, while Pietro was still sitting on the couch, drumming dramatically on one of the pillow. The song was about to end, going on its last notes. They instantly turned around to face each others, Pietro pointing at Tony with a knowing smirk.

"I say I'm hooked on a feeling!" they both shouted at the same time.

The song ended, and Tony slumped on the couch, his breath slightly more heavy than usual. Pietro's phone vibrated, and he glanced at the screen, seeing that Natasha had sent him another message. " _Did I stutter?"_ was enough to make Pietro turn the speaker off. Tony gave him a strange look and chuckled when the young man showed him the text.

"She threatens but she doesn't bite." he smirked, his words slightly slurred.

"Well, I don't want to find out if that's true." Pietro retorted, moving a little to be more comfortable on the couch, his back against the armrest. There was a silence between them, but not a heavy one, they were far enough in their friendship to stop talking for minutes and yet not feel like the situation was awkward. They were just silent, Tony's head tilted back as he stared at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"I never got to try to lift Thor's hammer." Pietro suddenly blurted out. "Are you all just scare I would be worthy?"

Tony snorted, not bothering to glance at him. "Yeah, the underwears thief is obviously the chosen one."

"I would be such a good ruler." Pietro grinned, ignoring his friend's remark.

"Ruler or not, Asgard would send you back to us after a day."

"Asgard?" Pietro repeated, dumbfounded.

Tony suddenly lifted his head, and gave him a worry look, wondering if he was kidding. "Where Thor comes from." he explained as a matter of fact. His eyes widened when he saw Pietro simply nodding, understanding that he wasn't kidding and that he had no idea Thor actually came from space. "What do you think you would have ruled?" he asked, almost shouting in bewilderment.

"Well, I don't know, some place in America? Texas? He looks like he could live in Texas."

"Ok, so first of all, how did you not know Thor is from Asgard?" Pietro just shrugged, too tired to give a correct answer and probably too merry to give a coherent one. "And second of all, are you out of your mind? Thor clearly looks like he's from California."

Pietro just shrugged again, the movement having apparently became his only way of communication, and mumbled that he never told him about it, and that all the god talked about was about how fascinating humans were and how good Pop tarts tasted. His voice was low and his words slurred, as if he was too exhausted to even talk, and Tony didn't understand half of his answer. The brunet was about to make another remark about the Texas mistake, when he saw that Pietro was sleeping, slightly snoring. He yawned, thinking that he needed coffee, but made the mistake of tilting his head against the back of the couch, closing his eyes for one second.

"Thor, son of Bryan, ruler of Texas." were his last slurred words before Tony drifted into sleep.

* * *

There wasn't a lot of things that could get a giggle out of Natasha's mouth. Actually, her giggle was usually threatening, and the few people who had already heard it besides Clint weren't there anymore to talk about it. The men of the team trying fruitlessly to lift Thor's hammer could make her giggle behind her hand, Clint being awkward could, but most importantly, Tony sleeping on the couch next to Pietro, slightly drooling over the snoring man's shoulder, could definitely make her giggle when no one was there to see her.

She was always the first to wake up, right before Steve, when the redhead walked into the kitchen to get a light breakfast, she didn't expect to find two members of the team asleep on the sofa next to each other, Tony's head resting on Pietro's shoulder. There was an empty bottle of alcohol dropped on the floor, and she shook her head in disapproval, a quiet but irrepressible giggle escaping her lips. She picked up the bottle and put it on the counter, when she noticed Steve walking in. It was only six am, and yet he looked his usual perfectly put together self. He greeted her, and was about to go get some eggs from the fridge when his glance fell onto the couch. He suppressed a laugh, and took a phone out of his pocket, snapping a picture of the scene.

"Since when do you know how to use this?" Natasha smirked, grabbing an apple from the counter.

Steve gave her an amused look, and headed towards the fridge, asking her if she wanted to go on a run with him. She shrugged and agreed, thinking that she had nothing better to do other than training, and sat down on one of the stool, biting into her apple and waiting for Steve. The soldier was almost done cooking his breakfast when Wanda entered the room, followed by Sam. She looked down at her brother, and a warm smile appeared on her lips. The falcon's reaction wasn't as affectionate, as he grabbed his phone and took a picture. Steve was about to tell him that he had already took one, when he saw that his friend was posting the picture on his social media, with a wicked grin plastered on his face.

"They're going to kill you." Wanda pointed out, hardly containing her laugh.

"And it'll still be worth it." Sam smirked, typing the captions of the picture.

The witch rolled her eyes, still with a smile on her lips, and turned around, about to go sit with Steve, when she saw Clint entering the room. The atmosphere immediately became heavier, as the archer walked towards the fridge, unaware of how stiff Wanda had became. Steve watched him with a wary look, and Natasha just kept eating, glancing at him from the corner of her eyes, not really interested but still curious. Sam frowned, not understanding why they all acted this way, and just grabbed what he needed, exiting the room.

Steve exchanged an exasperated look with Natasha, as he struggled not to just get up and leave the room right now, not in the mood to endure another argument so early in the morning. They already had to bear the tension all week, couldn't they have a few hours of peace?

Clint was taking a mug out of a shelf, not being able to function without a coffee, when he noticed the strange behavior of the others in the room. He frowned, but didn't say anything, as he put his mug in the coffee maker. An uncomfortable silence settled in the room, only disturbed by the buzzing sound of the device. As soon as the brunet got his coffee, he turned around, and was about to walk out of the room. Wanda let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, as Natasha just stared at him, unaffected by the tension in the room, when Clint's glance suddenly fell on the reflection of the television, showing the two sleeping on the couch.

He frowned, his grip on his mug unconsciously tightening, and instantly forgot about his "I'm not good enough for him" speech. Clint suddenly noticed the empty bottle of tequila, and clenched his jaw. Of course they had been drinking, that's was all Tony ever did, wasn't it?

"We're soon leaving for a mission, don't they have better things to do?" he scowled. He then glanced at the others and saw the stern look the others were giving him, tired of this situation. "C'mon, don't look at me like that. Steve, I thought alcohol was bad?"

"Well, at least Tony's bounding with the new recruits." the blond shrugged. "And alcohol can be a good way to relax, as long as they're not hangover during the mission."

"Yeah, sure, let's just let them do whatever they want." Clint growled.

Steve just got up, ignoring him, and put his empty plate in the sink. He was about to walk out with Natasha when he saw Pietro grudgingly got up from the couch, stretching and looking around him with sleepy eyes. He noticed the others, and greeted them with a faint smile. Steve waved at him, and Wanda gave him a warm smile, while Natasha just nodded, standing up and still waiting for the blond. His eyes suddenly met Clint's, and the archer glared at him, before walking out of the kitchen/living-room. Wanda saw her brother's eyes darken, his mood ruined, and gritted her teeth. She turned around and exited the room, following Clint who was only halfway through the corridor.

She had to jogged to catch up with him, and caught his wrist when she was right behind him, suddenly stopping him. He turned around, and looked at her, confusion written all over his face. "What's wrong with you?" Wanda asked, her voice harsh and her words sharp. Clint seemed to hesitate, before he shook his head, telling her that it was nothing. He was already regretting the way he had just acted. He knew he had been rude and that what was happening between Pietro and Tony was none of his business, but he was just so upset when he saw them asleep together, he couldn't keep the words from falling of his mouth.

"Well, if it's nothing, then stop getting mad at my brother." Wanda retorted in a dry tone.

Clint sighed, rubbing his neck. Wanda was right, and the last thing he wanted to do was upset her too. He had already done enough these last days, getting mad at Tony, at Pietro... He felt like he was doing everything wrong and he just wanted it to stop. The brunet started thinking that he may have to tell Wanda what was really happening. She was mad, and she had every right to be. He was acting like an asshole, and he didn't want her to think he was actually one. Maybe if she knew, she would understand.

"I'm sorry, it's just... I see Tony doing-" he started, before being cut off.

"Is that the problem? Are you jealous?" she scoffed.

She took a step toward him, invading his personal space, and Clint instantly knew he was screwed. She had always been kind of shy when in the presence of other people, besides her brother, and she never stood too close to them. But now she was not even a feet away from him, staring at him with a deadly glare, and Clint almost wondered if it was the last thing he was going to see. She poked, or more like stabbed a finger into his chest, and narrowed her eyes.

"He's finally getting along with the rest of the team, that's a good thing." she snarled in a low raspy voice. "Try not to ruin it all."

He stared speechlessly at her, startled by her threatening voice replacing her usual sweet and shy tone, unable to find anything to answer. She stepped away, and gave him an hypocritical smile which seemed polite but which couldn't make him forget her threat. Clint let out a sigh, as he kept walking down the corridor. He had now upsetted two Maximoff.

Could the situation get any worse?


	7. Knives and missions

"Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Clint looked up from his quiver, his eyes falling on Steve standing by the doorframe. They were about to leave for the important mission they had been preparing for two weeks, and the archer had just finished sorting his arrows. He shrugged, putting his quiver on his shoulder, and got up, his arms crossed as he waited for the blond to tell him what was wrong.

"We all noticed that something had happened between you and Pietro, and I wouldn't want that to affect the mission." He rubbed his neck, looking quite uncomfortable with the subject. "Could you try to ease the tension between you and Tony before we get there?"

The archer crossed his arms, lifting his eyebrows. "I think we can handle this, we're not children. I'm not gonna let him die just because we are having a misunderstanding." Usually, he would have said that there was no problem, but now he knew there was no point in denying. Pietro was incredibly cold with him, and they hadn't talked since their argument about Tony's influence, everyone knew something was wrong.

"I know this, Clint, you're a professional, but a good communication is important." Steve sighed. "Just... Try to talk to him. Please."

Without another word, the blond walked out of the room, leaving Clint alone and conflicted. The archer clenched his jaw, running a hand over his face. This was all getting too complicated, he just wanted this to stop. He was tired of all of this. All he wanted to do was ignore this until it went back to normal, but he knew he was the only one who could fix this.

Clint knew this tension wasn't good for the team and that he had to do something, but hadn't he already done enough? Every time he had tried to do something, he had screwed up. He couldn't talk to Pietro anymore without saying something incredibly stupid. A few days ago, he had realized things were better like this, since he didn't want his relation with Pietro to go too far, but now he was forced to realize this was another stupid decision. He couldn't let Pietro be mad at him forever, it was a selfish thing to do. The runner deserved better than this, and the others would quickly get annoyed by this useless tension.

The archer sighed, and reajusted the quiver on his shoulder before walking out of the room, heading towards the hangar. He didn't even know when he would be able to talk to Pietro, or what to apologize for. Well, at least he knew he wasn't supposed to apologize for ignoring him because, Pietro was kind of the one who started this, but he would have actually rather said sorry for this than for his attitude towards him and Tony. Clint just wished he would run into him in the corridor and get over it already.

The hangar looked empty when he finally reached it, and he was at least glad he hadn't ran into Tony, when a familiar laugh suddenly reached his ears. He turned his head, and saw a snickering Pietro entering the hangar from another corridor, a few blue blurry lines still floating behind him, showing that he had rushed in here. Clint took a deep breath, and grudgingly turned towards him, about to go apologize to the young man, when Tony suddenly appeared behind the silver-haired man, emerging from the same corridor. He had an unimpressed look on his face, and rolled his eyes at the immaturity of his friend. The archer frowned, and glanced back at Pietro, now noticing the sunglasses the runner had just stolen from the genius proudly perched on top of his head.

"Kid, these cost more than Cap's underwears, be careful." Tony smirked.

"Yeah, you know if I were you I wouldn't call me this while I'm holding your precious sunglasses." Pietro retorted as he turned around, walking backwards, and raised his eyebrows at the genius.

Clint stared at them, unconsciously clenching his jaw in an old habit. He felt conflicted. On one hand, he knew he had to fix things, he was tired of all of this and wanted to have a normal relationship with Pietro again, but on the other hand, something about the fact that he had been replaced so easily by the young man bothered him. He couldn't stop feeling jealous. The archer now wondered if he would one day be able to go back to being simple friends with Pietro. He didn't want their relationship to go further, but he also couldn't imagine someone else being this close to him. It only confirmed what he had concluded a few days ago: things were better like that. Back then, he had came to this conclusion because he thought he wasn't good enough for him, but now Clint knew that it'd be wiser to stay away from the young man if he felt this way toward him.

"Did you try a marriage counselor?" a voice asked behind him, interrupting him in his thoughts.

He blinked, suddenly noticing that he had been staring at them for way too long, and turned his head, seeing Natasha walk past him as she headed towards the quinjet. "Steve asked you to talk to me?" the brunet sighed, as he followed her into the jet. People would only talk to him about Pietro, now? Had he became a cliché white girl from a tv show, sadly reduced to a love interest? He remembered this from when he had made the dumb mistake of watching television with Natasha, and he never thought he would one day relate to it.

"Actually, he did, but I said I had better things to do." Natasha shrugged, sitting down on one of the many seats.

She scrunched her nose in an expression of discomfort, and got up, taking a few knives and guns out of her suit. "Care to explain to me why you're doing this then?" Clint asked, his eyebrows lifted in curiosity. The redhead didn't answer right away, putting her weapons aside before sitting down again, more comfortably this time.

"Because I'm tired of those sad puppy eyes, they make me want to punch you." she answered casually, putting her legs on Clint's laps when he sat beside her.

"Geez, thanks." the archer grunted, getting a quiet laugh from her.

A comfortable silence fell between them as they watched the others gathering in the hangar, each of them gradually getting in the quinjet once they had greeted everyone. Clint's eyes fell back on Pietro glaring at Sam, who was apparently smiling a little too brightly at his sister. Natasha followed his glance, and rolled her eyes when she saw who he was watching. "If you like him, then do something about it. If you don't, stop bitching about it. That's all." she said as a matter of fact. She wasn't really good at relationship advice, and she never really applied them herself. She knew it wasn't that easy, but Natasha couldn't think of anything else to tell him. They had been doing this for too long, it was time to act.

"I can't like him... I'm..." Clint shook his head, searching for the right words. Too old, not good enough, too haunted, these would have all fitted and yet he couldn't bring himself to say them.

"You're older? Good. Nobody cares." the redhead shrugged, already sick of this conversation. "It's true, you're fifteen years older than him, it can seem weird, but, seriously Clint, is anything normal in our lives? Last year, I took interest in a man who turns all big and green when he's angry."

A small smile tugged at the corners of Clint's lips, and she playfully punched his shoulder, scowling at him for being amused by her terrible love life. The archer was about to answer when he saw the twins settle down a few seats away from them from the corner of his eyes. He lowered his voice, slightly leaning towards his friend to stay as discreet as possible.

"I like him. But all I've been doing since I've realized I was jealous is screwing up. I upsetted Pietro, Tony, even Wanda..." Clint sighed, shaking his head. "If this isn't a sign that it's not gonna work, I don't know what is."

Natasha rolled her eyes, retorting that she wasn't really good in relationships and yet even she knew that telling him how he felt would fix everything. He was supposed to be the one who's good at relationship advices, he was the social one, why was she doing this? It wasn't her job. She could give fighting advices, but when it came to social advices, her answer was most of the time "kill him".

"Who said he even liked me? I know he had already flirted with me, but this doesn't mean anything. Just look at how fast he replaced me." The redhead gave him a stern stare, clearly sick of his constant rant about why this wasn't a good idea, so he resumed, trying to end the conversation before she felt the need to murder him. "I should just step off and wait for things to get back to normal."

"You already did that. And we saw how that turned out."

"Well, I'll just do it better this time." Clint growled back. "C'mon, you must have seen how messy things already are. Do you really think a relationship would work?"

Natasha shook her head, absent-mindely playing with a knife she had kept in her hand instead of putting it aside, and didn't even bother to reply. He had spent days trying to convince himself this wouldn't work, they both knew she couldn't make him change his mind. A part of her was still glad he didn't listen to her. She didn't really understand how their relationship worked, and if Pietro wasn't actually serious about his feelings towards Clint, she wouldn't want to be the one who pushed the archer towards him.

"Alright, everyone's here?" Steve asked, looking at everyone as he climbed into the quinjet.

Clint considered tilting his head back and napping for a second as he stared with boredum written all over his face at Steve, knowing that he was probably going to remind them of the plan. He already knew it, he had heard it a thousand time. They would slowly make their way into the area without being noticed, each of them occuping a part of it except Pietro who would recon the whole area because of his speed, and then Clint would stay outside, surveying the perimeter. He and Tony would be the only one outside, the genius having to keep a look on the base in case of any problem, while the others, Steve, Pietro, Wanda and Natasha would slowly infiltrate the base. It was divided in four quadrants, and each occupied one.

The archer was deep in his thoughts, absent-mindely rehearsing the plan, when he felt Natasha's elbow dug into his ribs. "I wasn't kidding, I will punch you." she hissed, half smirking half serious. Clint rolled his eyes, retorting that he was looking at Steve. He didn't even make "sad puppy eyes" at Pietro, that was ridiculous. "You had sad puppy eyes." Natasha shrugged.

"I have a resting bitch face."

"You have a sad resting bitch face." the redhead retorted.

"That's not even possible." Clint huffed, shaking his head at her nonsense. Natasha snorted that his face wasn't even possible, and the archer gave her an unimpressed look. Sometimes he couldn't believe some people were actually afraid of her. Her reputation would probably be ruined if someone else than him heard one of her comeback, she was terrible at it.

The redhead offered him a smirk, still satisfied that she had the last word, and shifted a little, putting more weight on his laps to be more comfortable on her seat, staring at Steve with bored eyes while he reminded them the importance of going unnoticed. This was going to be a long flight.

* * *

They rarely had missions this quiet. Usually, they could hear explosions all around them, seeing bullets flying everywhere and guns being aimed at them. For once, Clint wouldn't have been against this kind of mission. He didn't like the dreadful fear that clung to him during these, afraid that one of them would be harmed, afraid that once again, one of his friend would be killed protecting him, but it was too silent. They were all quietly making their way towards the base, having been dropped off at the same spot, and were slowly taking different path to cover most part of the base. He could only hear the leaves cracking under his feet, and the sharp breath of Steve, who was the only one who was still in his perimeter. Wanda and Natasha had been the first to take another path, the north and east quadrants being at the opposite of where they landed, and Pietro and Tony had disappeared not long after them.

Clint huffed, and noticed that he couldn't hear Steve anymore, meaning that they were reaching the base and that he had to go to his area, towards the main entrance. The silence was now even heavier than before, and the archer tried to focus on his mission harder to avoid what he had been dreading: his own thoughts. He had always liked mission because they allowed him to put his mind on something else than his problems, but people had been talking to him about Pietro all day, and now it seemed like he couldn't even leave his thoughts.

"Everyone's in place?" Steve asked in his earpiece. "Some soldiers should be positioned around the base, knock them out before they can warn the others. We need to be furtive."

Clint shook his head, focusing again, and lifted his bow, taking an arrow out of his quiver apprehensively. He slowly made his way towards the property, watching out for any soldier, and heard Tony say in the earpiece that he wasn't seeing any soldiers in his area. He was much quicker than the others to scan his perimeter, thanks to his armor. There was a sudden burst of wind, and Clint's fist clenched around his bow by reflex. All he could see was a few blue blurry lines, before the speed of it sent him stumbling a little backwards. Pietro had ran what seemed like a feet away from him, knowing this was going to bother him. _The quick bastard._ the brunet thought, keeping himself from insulting the runner.

"Oh, so you're talking to me now, old man?" a voice suddenly asked him in his earpiece, making him realized he had actually said that out loud.

"We're on a mission, of course I'm talking to you." The archer grunted back, avoiding his question.

"So you admit you weren't talking to me anymore."

Clint shook his head, sighing, and asked him if he really thought this was the moment. He started walking again, starting to catch sight of the main entrance he was supposed to watch. "Why not?" he heard the runner answer back in his earpiece, probably already in Steve's area. It would probably take him two seconds to circle this base if he had to, but here Pietro had to recon each area, looking for any trap or soldier while the others were making their way into the base. "Focus, kid." Clint grunted, looking around him warily now that he was closer to the site, even though it was still so far he could barely see it behind the trees.

"What's your problem?" Pietro asked him, ignoring him which wasn't really surprising.

"Right now? You're my problem."

"Not only right now, apparently." he heard the young man grumble.

Pietro was slightly panting, which only made his accent worse. Usually, he could talk while running easily, but he had been keeping that speed for quite a long time now and he was starting to get a little tired. Fortunately, Clint was still able to understand what he was saying despite his heavy accent. Well, right now the archer would rather not understand what the sokovian was saying. They both knew what this conversation was leading them to, and they also knew that it would end badly.

"Clint, Pietro, focus." Steve scowled in their earpiece.

Not only did it remind them that they were in mission and that what they were doing was reckless and stupid, but it also made them realize that everyone could hear their conversation. Not that Clint really cared at this point, given that Natasha, Tony and Wanda already knew everything about this, and that Steve would be too afraid of overstepping bondaries to ask them about it anyway. The brunet quickly understood that Pietro didn't care either when the young man resumed, his breathing less irregular which meant that he had stopped, probably reaching the end of the perimeter.

"Why can't we just talk to each other like we did before?"

His voice was quiet and filled with sorrow, making him stop for a second, but Clint quickly regained his composure. Pietro was making him feel bad about pushing him away when he had been the one to replaced him in less than a week. It wasn't right. "Doesn't matter, you have Tony now." he growled.

"And?"

Clint immediately regretted his words, pressing his lips in a thin line. "Nothing." he answered, shrugging it off even though Pietro couldn't see him. He couldn't believe he had just said that. He was now definitely a cliché white girl. The brunet knew he was jealous, he had stopped denying that a few days ago, but he never thought he would show it like that.

In a few last steps, he finally reached the main entrance located at the south quadrant of the base, a looked around him, watching out for any ennemy, before climbing the tree which offered the best view on the whole area. He tried to focus again on his mission, crouching down on a branch and aiming his bow at the door, ready to stop anything that would try to escape or attack him. They needed to find some secrets files from Hydra in this base, and shut down this site in the same occasion. Usually they would have made a big entrance, but these files would have been destroyed before they could even lay a hand on it.

Clint was finally starting to relax a little, his shoulders getting less tensed and his grip around his bow loosening, when the same familiar voice erupted once again from his earpiece, apparently not done with this conversation.

"I don't understand why you're mad. You wanted me to give you some space, so I gave you some space."

"What?" Clint asked, his eyebrows knitted in confusion.

He was about to ask him to explain himself, but Steve cut him off, saying that they were going inside and that everyone needed to keep an eye out. It was too late for explaination, the mission had really started and now Clint would have to wait until the end to understand what Pietro meant, and what probably started it all.

He heard something above him, and looked up, seeing Tony flying over the base, keeping an eye on any entry or exit. In his earpiece he could hear the others give informations about their localisations, but he just kept staring at the entrance, trying to focus but still preoccupied by the last thing Pietro had said to him. A few minutes passed, and everything remained relatively calm. He should have known this wasn't a good sign.

"My area's completely empty." Natasha stated from the east quadrant.

Wanda, who was going through the north quadrant, made the same observation, and Clint frowned, his heart starting to beat a little faster in apprehension. Steve apparently had the same concern, as he suddenly came to a halt, asking Tony to scan the area.

"Jarvis, check the thermal radiation." Clint heard the genius ask in his earpiece.

A heavy silence settled between them, and no more footstep or respiration could be heard. A few seconds passed, which felt like hours, until Tony finally came with the results. Nothing could have scared the others more than hearing his voice, usually so confident and smug, filled with distraught and confusion as he told them that there was no one else in the base. They had been informed of their arrival, and got them exactly where they wanted them to be.

Steve was the first to react, shouting at them to get back to the quinjet, and they all started running, trying to reach the exit before being killed. They didn't know what was waiting for them inside, but they knew it would certainly kill them, and making it back in one piece would be a miracle. Clint stared at the base with wide eyes, fear painfully clutching his heart. If it wasn't for the explosion that shook the entire base, Clint might not have reacted.

He jumped down from his spot, and put a hand to his earpiece, desesperately waiting for someone to talk. No one was talking, flames were erupting from the center of the base, walls were collapsing inside, and all he could do was wait for someone to talk. He knew that neither Steve, Wanda, nor Natasha were in the center yet, but there was one idiot who could reach anything in a second. All Clint asked for was to hear his heavy accent even just one second.

Steve asked everyone if they were alright, breathing erratically as he ran through the corridors, and three voices answered at the same time, including the familiar annoying voice he knew so well. Clint let out a deep breath, and got up, unconsciously taking a few steps towards the entrance even though it was dangerous.

"Don't move!" Pietro shouted in his earpiece.

Clint frowned, and wanted to ask him why he was saying that, but his words got stuck in his throat, as he stared helplessly at the base. Not even a second after, a flash of blue appeared in front of him, and disappeared, leaving a disoriented Wanda behind him. She stumbled a little and Clint immediately went by her side, putting her arm around his shoulders. Another bomb went off in the north quadrant and she let out a choked sob, putting a hand over her lips as she stared at the base, her watery eyes filled with horror. She had been there only a second ago, she could have died because of that bomb, and now they both knew this could be her brother's fate.

There was another explosion, from the east quadrant, and Natasha was by their side not even a second after. This time, Pietro was still there, breathing erratically and looking around him.

"Where's Steve?" he asked, turning his head to look at Natasha.

He hadn't seen him when he went back for Natasha, he didn't know if Steve was still in there and he wouldn't stop until everyone was safe. The redhead shook her head, saying that he was supposed to be in the west quadrant but that he may already be out. She should have known "may" wasn't enough for Pietro. He went back inside, before anyone could stop him, only leaving blue blurry lines behind him. And when Steve suddenly shouted in the earpiece that he was out of the base, it was already too late. The bomb from the west quadrant exploded.

Everything was on fire, the base was slowly collapsing, and all Clint could do was stare at the fire erupting from the place, frozen. Next to him, he could hear Wanda scream her brother's name at the top of her lungs, calling him back, and his earpiece was screeching, giving out a few bits of Steve's shouts. All of sudden, Clint noticed a flash of blue in the main entrance, among the flames devouring the walls. The blurry lines became a silhouette as Pietro came to an abrupt stop, looking around him to see where was the exit, when he caught sight of the brunet. Their eyes locked, and relief washed over Clint. Pietro gave him a warm smile, and turned around to face him, about to run out of the base, knowing that everyone was safe.

And that's when the last bomb went off.


	8. Burns and confessions

"He has a few broken ribs and a concussion from the impact. His high metabolism healed most of his superficial injuries, but he still suffers from third-degree burns on his back and arms. That requires surgery, but with our equipment, he should be back on his feet in a week or two."

They were all surrounding Dr Cho in the corridor of the medical wing, waiting for her diagnostic on the numerous injuries of Pietro. They were all barely standing up, all bandaged and bruised, their clothes still soaked in blood in some parts, but they all refused to go change until they had news from their new young recruit, who had almost died once again due to their carelessness. They should have checked the base before going in, they should have been more careful, and now, because of them, one of their friend had had to save them, putting his life at stake once again.

"It will be a painful processus and he'll keep scars from this incident, but he'll be fine."

Clint was standing next to Natasha, and had an arm around Wanda's shoulder who was staring at Helen with tired eyes, her face still stained with dried tears. She was leaning a little onto him, weak both physically and emotionally. The archer's glance fell onto the stains of blood on the floor, and his body tensed at the fresh memory of carrying Pietro's limp body back to the quinjet, and feeling the blood from his head injury dampen his shirt. Their travel back had been a real nightmare. Clint had been the one at the pilot's seat, finding himself incapable of staying with the others while the kid was this badly injured. He had kept his eyes glued on the horizon, trying to focus on the sound of the quinjet. His fingers had twitched the whole travel from the need of taking his hearing aid off, and he had clenched the yoke so hard his knuckles became white. He had kept accelerating, to get Pietro to the facility the quickest possible, but also to make the engine roar louder so he wouldn't hear them anymore. But he had kept hearing them, he had kept hearing everything. Wanda's sobs, Natasha and Steve's concerned whispers, but most importantly, he couldn't stop hearing Pietro's quiet whimpers. Even though he was unconscious, he was in atrocious pain.

"You can go see him, but he's still unconscious." Dr Cho concluded, interrupting Clint in his thoughts.

They all simply nodded, glancing at the door apprehensively. They wanted to see him, but he was unconscious, bandaged and still weak. It was always hard to see a teammate after he had been injured, nothing was more frustrating than staring helplessly at a friend suffering, especially since their failed mission was what put him in this bed. Steve was the first to talk, saying that he needed to go make the report of the mission, and that he would come back to see Pietro later. He empathetically patted Wanda's shoulder as he walked away, quickly followed by Tony who had to make a call.

Wanda glanced up at Clint, giving him a shy look, and looked down again, swallowing. She was probably having a hard time dealing once again with her twin brother being badly injured, but, as sad as it was, this was their life now, and they had to get used to this constant danger. Taking a deep breath, the brunette put her hand on the doorhandle and slowly opened the door, disappearing into the room.

"He's gonna be alright." Natasha said in a soft and affectionate tone that she had probably only used twice in her whole life. "We've all been through this, you know."

"Through an explosion? I doubt it." Clint let out in a bitter laugh.

The redhead shook her head, slightly annoyed. He knew what she meant. Crossing her arms, she repeated that they had all been through this first real bad injury. It seemed to pick his interest, and he turned his head to look at hear, offering her an attentive ear. "It makes us understand that we have limits and that we can't save everyone. It reminds us that we are still mortals." she resumed, seeing understanding sparkle in Clint's eyes. He remembered his first real injury. During his first year of being a real agent, he had vainly tried to save a group of people trapped in a collapsing building, and had almost died that day. At this time, he knew it was impossible, and yet he had still tried, because when he had seen the people inside, his own life wasn't even something that went through his mind. The archer quickly realized that this was exactly what happened to Pietro, not only during this mission, but also in Sokovia.

"He has been through this twice, Nat." Clint sighed. "I don't think he's ever gonna learn."

"Then you'd better admit your feelings while you still have time."

At first, Natasha didn't want to push Clint in the kid's direction, but now things had gone too far. Clint was worried sick about Pietro, he liked him more than she had ever seen him like anybody. She knew that if he didn't tried to make things work, he would regret it his whole life. She had a lot of regrets and she didn't want her friend to make the same mistakes.

Clint looked away, for once not trying to argue with her on his feelings. She lightly squeezed his wrist to show him some support before leaving, knowing that she had nothing to do here anymore. The archer was finally left alone, and looked up at the door, hesitating. He took a deep breath, and kept himself from rolling his eyes at his own cowardness. He had already seen Pietro with eight bullets lodged in his chest, he would be alright seeing him now, wouldn't he? The brunet entered the room, quietly closing the door behind him, and glanced at Wanda sitting on a chair next to the bed, unconsciously trying to avoid looking at Pietro.

"Do you need some more time alone with him?" he asked, ready to get out as fast as he got in.

She looked up at him, and silently shook her head, getting up. She told him that she needed to go grab something to drink, and that he could take her place while she was gone. She headed towards the door, and put her hand on his shoulder as she walked past him, offering him a weak smile. As soon as the door closed behind her, a heavy silence settled into the room.

The archer looked up, his eyes landing on the young man laying on the bed. He had to admit that seeing him like that was actually a relief. He was safe, and that was all that mattered. Neatly tucked under his covers, Pietro had never looked so peaceful, even though he was bandaged and burnt at the third degree. They had given him a lot of morphine so he wouldn't suffer anymore. But, even though Pietro wasn't in danger anymore, Clint felt his chest tighten as he went to sit in the chair, looking at the silver-haired man with eyes filled with sorrow. His fingers twitched at his sides from the need of taking Pietro's hand in his, as if he wanted to check if he was really there, safe and alive, but he looked down and his eyes fell onto the bandaged hands on the young man. He felt a lump in his throat at the thought of Pietro, trapped in this burning corridor, only a few meters away from him when the detonation happened, when what was left of the base started collapsing. Luckily, the explosion had projected Pietro out of the base, but he had crashed into a tree at an alarming speed, and the flames created by the explosion had burnt his entire body. Clint closed his eyes, putting his head between his hands as he tried to regain his composure, but when he took a deep breath in an attempt of steadying his respiration, the scent of burnt skin invaded his senses, and, in the blink of an eye, he was back in the battlefield.

 _It took one second to Clint to realize what was happening. At one moment, he was seeing Pietro's eyes wrinkle as relief washed over him at his sight, and then, suddenly, the deafening explosion of the last bomb shook the ground, destroying everything in its way. He was projected away from the base, his back painfully hitting a tree. He fell down, and found himself incapable of reacting. His breath was erratic and his heart was pounding painfully against his ribcage, and all he could think about was Pietro's smile before his figure was drowned by the flames. He opened his eyes with difficulty, and coughed, suddenly felt the warmth surrounding him. There was fire everywhere, from the wreckage that had became the base, to the forest. All he could see was fiery flames dominating his surroundings. He tried to sit up, and took a deep breath, feeling ashes fill his throat. And suddenly, he heard a bloodcurdling scream near him._

" _Pietro, please..."_

 _Clint looked around him, narrowing his eyes to see through the smoke, and saw Wanda and Natasha, sitting next to each other on the ground. Wanda was leaning down, shaking something, and yelling herself hoarse. Clint got up, and took a few steps towards them, limping a little because of the foot he had landed on. He saw the body in front of Wanda, and his blood ran cold. Pietro was laying down in front of the wreckage, almost unrecognizable with his face and hair covered with ashes, and his clothes torn. Wanda was shaking him, begging him to wake up in a voice rough from screaming. Tears kept dropping from her eyelashes onto his face, tracing their path through the ashes as they slid down his cheeks. But despite her plead, he remained still, barely breathing. Once again, he had fallen for his teammates. Once again, Clint was the last thing he saw before closing his eyes._

"Jesus, kid, what did you do..." Clint muttered, putting his head between his hands.

He was terrified of losing him. He didn't realize it until then, but Pietro was a big part of his life now. If he died, the brunet would miss all the little things the kid did that he didn't even notice. The way Pietro was always sitting close to Clint, the way he was always the one who could make him smile after an exhausting day, or how he always looked after him. He had always focused on his pranks, on the annoying side of Pietro, but there was so much more, and he wasn't ready to lose it. He was too used to his presence, even though the last weeks had been complicated. Clint furrowed his eyebrows, suddenly remembering the last thing Pietro had told him. _You wanted me to give you some space, so I gave you some space._ He didn't have the occasion to ask him what he meant, and the thought that Pietro may have died right after telling him that he had somehow made him understand that he didn't want to see him anymore sent shivers down his spine.

The door suddenly opened and Clint didn't even bother to turn his head towards the sound, knowing that it was Wanda. She quietly closed the door, and walked towards the other chair in the room, sighing as she sat down, looking at her brother with eyes filled with sorrow. She then glanced at Clint, and noticed the conflicted look on his face, and the crease on his forehead.

"You look troubled." she said, drawing his attention.

Clint pursed his lips, wondering if talking to her about this was really a good idea. She was the only one who would be able to give him an answer right one, the twins were really close and told each other everything, but right now she had her own problems and he didn't want to bother her with his. But when he looked up and met her genuinely interested eyes, he understood that she would do anything to think about something else than her brother laying in this hopsital bed. He took a deep breath, before explaining to her what Pietro had told him at the beginning of the mission, before everyone went in, before adding that he didn't understand what he meant, given that he had never told him that he wanted some space. He glanced back at Wanda, and frowned. She looked like a deer caught in headlights. He had never seen her looking this guilty, and the remorse in her eyes almost made him regret telling her.

Wanda looked down, shaking her head. She couldn't do this anymore. She didn't know he felt like this, she didn't know he would be this affected by something happening to Pietro, but she especially didn't know her brother would barely survive to an explosion. Things had gone too far, she needed to put an end to this.

"... You were talking with Natasha." she murmured, looking down at her hands. "He had annoyed you during your training, and he heard you talking with her. You were pretty upset and you said that you were tired of him, and that sometimes you just wished you could get rid of him. It hurt him, you know. He thought this was what you really thought of him. He thought he was a burden."

She saw the look of realization on Clint's face, and the remorse that suddenly filled his eyes made Wanda's chest tighten. She hadn't realized until now how this hurt them both. She thought she was during right, but all this time, she had been responsible of almost all the troubles in their life.

"I don't understand, actually doing what people tell him to do is not his kind. Why would he suddenly listen to me when I'm not even directly adressing to him?" Clint wondered, bewildered.

Wanda's leg started to jitter, and she felt like she was going to puke. She had never been more ashamed of herself. She needed to tell him, she needed to explain everything to him. She felt a lump in her throat, and the words wouldn't even get out of her mouth. She didn't want to tell him, he was the last person she wanted to disappoint. "It was me." she suddenly choked out. "I was the one who told him that maybe he should leave you alone."

"What?" She could hear the confusion in his voice, and found herself incapable of meeting his eyes.

Wanda pursed her lips, bracing herself for what was coming. She had to take responsibility of what she had done, she had to tell him everything, but she especially had to look at him while doing it, it was the least she could do right now. She took a deep breath, and looked up, meeting his eyes. He had confusion written all over his face, but, when she was expecting disappointment, she saw nothing but sadness and betrayal in his eyes. He didn't understand why she would do that to him, she knew she was one of the few he truly trusted, and right now, all Wanda wanted was to run away and never come back.

"We tell each other everything, so he obviously told me about this." she uttered in an uncertain voice. "He didn't know what to do, so I said that maybe you really needed some time alone."

"But you knew I didn't really mean this, why did you tell him that?"

Knowing that she had been the one who had started it all felt like a stab in the back. He always had a hard time trusting people, especially people he was interested in, and what had happened with Pietro had him thinking that he wasn't good enough for anyone. He knew he still had a big part in this, that he had been too jealous and too cold towards Pietro, but he still couldn't believe she had told Pietro to give him some space. Some space was the last thing he needed after his divorce with Laura. He had never felt so lonely, and if it wasn't for Natasha and the twins, he would probably have isolated himself and would have never gotten past this sorrow.

"I didn't know you didn't mean it!" Wanda almost cried, her voice getting sligthly higher. "I found it weird, sure, but I thought that maybe he had gone too far, and that if he didn't step back a little, you would litteraly explode, and your relation would just become worse. Some part of me knew you didn't mean it, but..."

"But what?"

Wanda took a deep breath, glancing at Pietro from the corner of her eyes. "He's my brother, I'm not gonna watch him chase you for the rest of his life. He likes you, you know it, and yet you don't do anything. It's the first time he feels so close to someone, I don't want his heart to be broken. I figured out that if he started slowly getting away from you by his own, it would be easier for you both."

She wasn't only justifying it to Clint, but also to herself. She needed to remind herself why she did this, she needed to remember she did this for her brother. She knew that what was happening between him and Clint would end up badly, or at least she thought so, and making him forget the archer this way was the easier thing to do. Betraying Clint was nothing compared to protecting her brother. Even though their life was different now, and that he wasn't all that mattered anymore, Pietro was still the most important person in Wanda's life, and she would never let anyone hurt him.

"I would never hurt him, Wanda." Clint uttered, as if he had just heard her thoughts.

The brunette shook her head hastily. She didn't want him to believe that was what she thought of him. She knew he would never hurt her brother intentionnaly. "It's not that." she corrected him in a soft tone. "You don't know what you want, at one moment you want space, and at the other you want him to come back, you can't treat him like that. I wanted him to forget you and find someone that would actually treat him the way he deserve to be treated."

"You know I only want what's best for you and your brother, I would never treat him the wrong way on purpose."

"I know that, Clint. You're a good man, and I know that you're probably what's best for my brother. But you're in a weird part of your life, you're confused, and those mixed feelings are not good for Pietro." She made a pause, glancing back at her brother. "All you need to do is make up your mind, and then come back to him if you're ready."

Clint sighed, rubbing his neck in a contemplative manner. Wanda was right. He had been too indecisive, and what he had done was selfish. He couldn't keep saying that he didn't want things to go further with Pietro because he was too scared of how things would go, and yet get jealous when the kid started getting close to someone else. It wasn't fair, neither to Pietro or to Tony. He needed to make a choice now, and he knew too well that he was incapable of staying away from the runner.

He got up, making an excuse about needing fresh air to think about it alone, and was about to leave when he noticed how tensed Wanda seemed. "You did this for your brother, Wanda. I would never get mad at you for that." he clarified, offering her a reassuring smile. She nodded, giving him a shy smile.

The archer headed towards the door, and was about to leave when he stopped by the doorstep once again. He turned his head toward Wanda, looking hesitant. He felt like, by leaving now, he was letting them down. He was giving the impression that he was running away now that things were getting serious, now that Wanda had asked him to make a choice. He cleared his throat, a little embarrassed. "... I really like your brother, you know."

"I know." Wanda immediately answered, with an amused smile on her lips. "And I also know that your choice's already made."

The brunet let out a small laugh, because, yes, of course she did, and finally left the room. He walked down the corridor of the medical wing, and took a turn, when he suddenly saw Tony in the waiting room, looking like he had just finished his phone call. He widened his eyes, and stopping dead in his track. He wasn't really in the mood to face the man he had criticize wrongfully during weeks just because of jealousy. He made a u-turn, casually leaving as fast as he came and hoping he went unnoticed, when a voice interrupted him.

"Running away from me, Barton?" He could already hear the smugness in his tone, and had to keep himself from rolling his eyes. "Come on, I know I'm a remarkable person, but I'm not that intimidating."

Clint turned around, now facing a really satisfied looking Tony who knew that, this time, Clint was the one in the bad position. They had all heard Pietro's words on the battlefield, they all knew the archer was the one who accidently started it all. Well, Tony had known it all along, given that Pietro had already confessed to him that the archer apparently didn't want to see him anymore, but now Clint knew that he had messed up too. This time, the brunet didn't have anything to reproach to Tony, and this would have probably put the genius in a really good mood if his friend wasn't unconscious in an hospital bed.

Clint took a deep breath, closing his eyes. He could do this. This was nothing, just five simple words that he had already said plenty of time, nothing complicated. Clenching his fists as if he was bracing himself for the worst thing he would ever experience, the brunet finally reopened his eyes, looking directly into Tony's.

"I owe you an apology." he admitted in a formal voice. "I've been an idiot, alright?"

Tony stared at him for a few seconds, taken aback by his apology. He wasn't expecting one, usually people would treat him like he was the worst man on the planet and then move on, even when proven wrong. People didn't usually value him enough to want to give him a proper apology, they didn't think anything affected him and they didn't care if he didn't like them. He opened his mouth, looking like he wanted to tell Clint it was alright, but ended up closing it, accepting it with a shrug as if it was nothing. There was no point in pretending. They both knew it wasn't nothing.

"I guess I was actually the one who was bad for Pietro, not you." Clint added with a bitter laugh, rubbing his neck. "Even though you made him drink."

"Well, in my defense, even drunk I still gave him good advices." Tony stated, lifting his eyebrows. "Like that night at the bar when I told him that you two had a good relationship and that he should stop ignoring you. Even though in the end you still managed to screw that up."

"You mean the night at the training room? It was you?"

The genius nodded, explaining that, that night, Pietro seemed depressed and that he missed Clint. He then added that the young man didn't think Clint missed him too, but that he managed to convince him otherwise. Clint let out a deep sigh, saying that he got it, that he had been stupid and he had screwed everything up with Pietro. Tony gave him a stern look, arching one eyebrow.

"No, the lesson here is that I'm a nice, clever, and incredibly handsome man." he corrected him, before adding. "I insist on the nice. Also on the clever. And on the handsome."

Clint huffed a laugh, shaking his head. He should probably have expected this. "Now I can see why you're getting along so well with Pietro." he laughed, before suddenly realizing something. He was having a normal, diplomatic and even kind of nice conversation with Tony. The archer frowned when he then realized that, once again, Pietro was involved. Clint was so mad at himself. He couldn't believe he had been so cold toward someone because of jealousy, this was beyond ridiculous. It was like these cliché white girls in teen movies who would get aggressive toward a girl just because she was too close to her love interest. Once again, he got this notion from Natasha. He really needed to stop watching television with her, she tended to get a little aggressive towards these bad teen movies.

Clint saw Tony repressing a smirk as he looked over the archer's shoulder, and was about to turn around to see what had picked his interest, when the genius drawn his attention back to him. "I have to go, try not to kill him yet, alright?" he asked, giving him a wink before walking away, leaving Clint perplexed behind him. What the hell was he talking about?

"Did you miss me?" an annoying familiar voice with a unmistikable accent suddenly asked from behind him.

Clint turned his head so fast he almost got a whiplash. In front of him, leaning onto the wall of the waiting room, Pietro was wearing his usual smug expression, as if he wasn't suffering just from standing there. Clint was almost sure the young man was only leaning onto the wall for support, since he could barely stand up on his own. He stared at the runner for what seemed like an eternity, unable to register the situation. "Pietro?" he asked, his frown turning into a concerned expression. "What are you doing out of bed? How did you even-" he spluttered.

"I'm pretty impressive, I know." Pietro answered with a smug smile, as if he was admiring his own stupidity.

Clint sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose, bracing himself for what was probably going to be an exhausting conversation. "Go back to your room, you're gonna reopen your wounds." he scowled, walking towards him. He put his hand on Pietro's shoulder, about to help him getting back to his room, but Pietro shrugged it off, saying that he was good. Clint crossed his arms, retorting that, no, he wasn't good, and Pietro turned around to face him, his back now completely resting against the wall.

"If I go back to my room now, I won't get to hear it."

An intense silence suddenly fell between them and a tension started filling the air. Pietro was staring deep into Clint's eyes, as if he was looking for an answer in his brown irises. They both knew what he meant, they both knew where this conversation was leading them, and yet, even though there was no point in denying anymore, even knowing that he couldn't escape it, Clint chose to play dumb. "Hear what?" he asked, as if he needed a confirmation for his suspicions.

"What you told Wanda."

At this moment, all Clint wanted to say "she told you?" but there was no point in asking: of course she did. And he knew that asking this would be a poor attempt of changing the subject, and he didn't want to look this pathetic. Talking about his emotions had always been really hard for Clint, but, today, he knew he needed to learn how to face his feelings, or he would end up losing everything he ever loved. You couldn't convince people to stay with sarcasm and wit remarks, they needed more. He had learned the lesson with Laura, he wouldn't do the same mistake twice.

"You like me."

Pietro had the biggest smile on his face, and even though it was probably supposed to be a smug one at first, the runner just couldn't contain his excitement. Clint felt a smile tug at the corners of his lips at the sight of the silver-haired man, and let out a small laugh. He retorted that he wish he didn't, subtely admitting his feelings. That wasn't a real confession, but that was probably the best he could do for the moment. That was apparently enough for Pietro, who kept a faint smile on his lips.

"Yeah, a lot of people do." he shrugged. "So...?"

Clint rolled his eyes, he should have known Pietro wouldn't let that go. "Would you go on a proper date with me?" he asked in a sincere, exagerated voice. The runner frowned, and Clint was ready to just fall on his knees and ask the lord what he had ever done to derserve this because apparently satisfying Pietro was harder than convincing Natasha not to kill someone because they had accidently pushed her.

"Hey, you had a lot more to tell me." Pietro whined, like the annoying and childish person he was.

"Let's just stick with the date for the moment."

"Unfair."

Pietro started pouting, crossing his arms, and glared at Clint. The archer rolled his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time of the day, but couldn't help a smile from appearing on his lips when he met Pietro's icy eyes, filled with a pretended irritation. Well, he hoped he was pretending. He never knew with the sokovian, he could get angry for no reason, he was quite unpredictable, but that was what made him so endearing.

"Would that make it up to you?" Clint smirked, suddenly closing the distance between them, and placed a soft kiss on Pietro's lips. It took a second for the young man to react, but, as soon as the shock passed, he started responding to the kiss, pressing his body against the archer's. He was about to snake an arm around Clint's neck to deepen the kiss, when the brunet suddenly took a step back, leaving the runner flustered and bewildered. Clint stared at him with an amused expression, and Pietro quickly regained his composure, straightening himself.

"... That'll do." he conceded, hiding his blushing cheeks behind a fake cough.

Clint saw the familiar glimpse of mischief in his eyes, and instantly felt the need to kiss him again. He would have missed that look so bad, he couldn't even remember why he hesitated to tell Pietro everything in the first place. He now knew that losing him wasn't an option.

The archer told him that he needed to go back to his room now, and took his left arm to put it around his shoulders, helping him to walk down the corridor. As he had suspected, Pietro could barely stand on his own, and he had to carry half of his weight, but he didn't mind. He didn't think anything could bother him at this moment.

"Clint?" Pietro sudddenly asked, drawing his attention back to him. Clint turned his head, glancing at the young man with an interrogative look. "I'm gonna need more of your underwears. Steve hides his boxers now."

The archer bursted out of laughter, shaking his head. "You idiot."

At this moment, Clint already knew these following months, or even years, would be the most exhausting of his life.

But, at least, now Pietro was _his_ burden.


End file.
